Chronicles of the Elusive Angel 2: Promise
by Kenjaje
Summary: Stitch is still having trouble deciding within himself whether Angel made it out of the explosion or not during the incident of Achie-baba Kino. However, he has all the time in the world due to a mishap in the past, and now he has to set things streight..
1. Broken

The Chronicles of the Elusive Angel:

Promise (Volume 2)

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 1: Broken

Dark clouds, which had gathered for the past half hour, loomed atop the heads that lived and prospered on the small Hawaiian island. Like clumsy amoebas in a wide lake, they crept along the sky; enveloping the peace of blue and shine of sun, covering everything in a dark, sleeting shadow.

Everything was covered and faded to black, with a gloom of blue. Any bright color was rendered dull and shaded. Bright yellow, normally glinting and cringing the eye, was now a relaxing soother. Vibrant orange, was reduced to a lifeless slouch with no energy.

For a second this was all that had happened, but lightly, specs of water fell from these black mushrooms; dropping seed upon seed of cascading droplets from their caps. The spores landed upon the ground, barely noticeable, and shattered as delicately as glass. Enlarging with every second, the seeds fell upon the island.

With not a care to the drenched hand, of water and small traces of blood; the thickened mattress of hair flopping about in an unnecessary way; the clouding drops pattering against the spheres that gave sight to the shadows, unblinking and fixated despite the annoying water, which also washed the dam away, and let loose the tears of anxiety and sorrow.

Loud screams from the far sky's were heard as rage and grief emanated throughout the mountaintops, chains of light striking swiftly and randomly against the earth that were seen as the swift, agile, cunningness of the strikes that were yet to be made upon the onlooker toward the target.

The blaster trembled, in her hand, as she held it with all of her strength. A glaze of water encased the shell of the gun, and spattered as she jerked with fear and hatred. The sky's seemed to cry with her-for her-and carry her vengeance, toward he who tortured her so.

The yellow furred alien, that came from the distant time, gleamed well and full off of her black pearls. Her hand clenched the pistol, with death and determination; her feet scraped the ground with ambition and adrenalin; her teeth clenched with everything but mercy and pity, for the experiment that stood before her, on the opposite edge of the spire.

They're single spire-that was higher and steeper then her depression, more straight and narrow then her vision, and more vengeful quivering then her body-was now growing slick and moist from the rain that fell so high above. Her finger, now touched the trigger of the blaster clenched in her hand, she opened her mouth to speak toward the experiment far in front of her.

"You don't deserve to live!" Lilo's rage-hissing voice echoed across the walls of the spire, carried by the water, by the wind, by the clouds, off to the far distances, but the declaration couldn't be heard by anyone but them.

"What is there to live for now?" 625 responded, "Angel is dead, and now my cousin is as good as gone. There's nothing to live for anymore, I've done my job here, I'll either die or return back to my own time." Lilo straightened her gaze and gritted her teeth, almost making her gums bleed. Her jaw was now aching from the intensity of her clench, but she didn't notice the acute tingle.

"Angel isn't dead, I know she's alive, Stitch and I saw her message ourselves. Besides what would killing Stitch have done anyway, to you she's already gone, why do you have to make me suffer, what did I do to you!" Thunder defended her vengeful debate, speaking her words louder then she, and flashing it's light brighter then her flare of soul severing loath.

"It was _his_ fault she died, it was _his _choice to save _you_ in the explosion, he didn't care about _her_. That's why you had suffer the same loss I did, and now you know how it feels. My job is done, pull the trigger." He grinned satanically at her, tempting her to snare him. She squeezed the trigger, and set loose the net that snapped shut around him.

She didn't wait a second longer. She threw the gun and ran in fear away from the scene; she couldn't bear that place any longer. She bolted for her home, to find Jumba, and ask if he knew what to do about Stitch.

_"I made him break it, that's why he's gone. Why didn't I listen to myself before? It's my fault, I made him break it…"_

5years later

Thrusting through the vacuum of space, dodging every meteor, planet, quasar, and white dwarf that was nearby, the cryogenic transport ship was just a few moments away from its destination; a soulless planet, made entirely of scarce materials barely able to support any life, but still able to support the life just now landing on its surface.

With almost no noise heard, the transport ship crashed softly, on the mass of green rock. Steam effervesced from small pores along the door of the ship. Inside, the small, yet strong and destructive creature was thawed from his forced, frozen sedation. Slowly, he opened his eyes, clearing his vision, and looked into the emptiness of his new habitat.

Stitch's eyes burst open, a glint of light shined across his black eyes, as he found himself now on a barren wasteland of nothing but flat surface, rolling across in a sphere that never ended. Panic inundated Stitch's heart, one second he was with Lilo, on earth, the next he opened his eyes to this. With teary eyes he gazed at the sudden change he had gone through, before him was proof that his unwise decision made him lose everything.

Next to Stitch, a red light blinked, catching his eyes and startling him for a second. In reflex he smashed the light, causing it to go out. But as he calmed, he saw a small button just below the light, wondering why the light was blinking, he pressed the button to see what would happen.

A whirring noise filled his ears, interrupting the solitude silence of the empty planet. Above the red light a door slid open, to view a small screen. The screen was black for a little while, and then began to fuzz with gray and white speckles, randomly flashing on the monitor.

"626…" he heard a fuzzy voice speak from the screen, as the picture came into clear view. Jumba was sitting down in a chair on the screen, speaking into the computer at his end. "Please lis…n 626." Jumba's voice fuzzed and faded, but sharply the screen flashed and became clear and crisp, and the voice of Jumba was clearly heard to his ears.

"626, listen to me very carefully. The 625 from the future, has sent you in a journey through space. Though I can't tell you exactly what planet you are on right now, but I do know its coordinates. Lilo came to me, asking me to find you, by the time I locked onto your signal, you were too far away to be retrieved, and there was nothing I could do, but let you and the ship go about your course.

"You should be receiving this message shortly after your cryogenic state is thawed, if you don't receive it, I only hope that you can figure out what to do. Stitch…the computer shows that something has happened, and somehow in some way, the time flux continuum has been split in three directions.

"We are being separated from the main stream entirely, but you are able to rejoin the mainstream, I don't know if this will make you panic-I hope it doesn't-but to be honest by the time you hear this message, five years will have gone by here on earth. There is nothing we can do about that, what is done now…is done."

Stitch drooped his ears, but listened intently to the monitor, soaking in the information Jumba was telling him, trying to recall the fight he had between 625, that happened five years ago, but to him was just a fraction of a second ago.

"Don't worry though," Jumba spoke optimistically, "I have sent the intergalactic space cruiser-the red one-it has locked onto your transport ship's location and is heading to you as we speak, by my calculations it shouldn't be harmed by any showers or flares, at least I hope not anyway.

"But, onto more important matters, I must prepare you 626, if you're going to go back to earth five more years will pass, and Lilo will be quite old. I am working on a time machine that will be able to send you back to this time, before the rope was frayed, so that you can hopefully fix it. However this time machine has one minor difference then the surfboard one; no one but you will have memories of what has happened here, after you go back, this whole trip will be in your mind only."

Stitch gazed at the monitor, still trying to recall the battle that he had, what he did, but nothing came to him. He still stared at the monitor, and listened to the extremely long but necessary message Jumba was sending him.

"Lilo has agreed to write down the location of this time machine, so that in the future when you find her she will be able to give it to you. I don't want doctor Hamsterveil or anyone else to get they're hands on it, having a future version of 625 was great enough of a challenge for you to handle.

"Find Lilo when you get back to earth, she will help you get the time machine, but this is the most crucial part of your mission; something has to be different. Sensors show that something happened in the battle that threw the time flux offset, something happened, or did not happen, and caused the splitting of the three times."

Stitch understood every word that Jumba told him, he understood his mission fully. He set outside and looked around at the green planet, up at the black sky most often, to find the red galactic empire shuttle. A glint in the stars appeared before him, as the ship sped out of the ether clouds, and landed a distance from him. He took a step forward, but heard Jumba call him back through the message.

"Stitch." He called, "Lilo wishes me to tell you, that around your neck will join the key to the location of the time machine. Good luck my friend, and hurry, having three severed time streams will cause the continuum to collapse if they are left stranded for too long. As long as you're able to find the machine though, everything will be fine. Now go, the ship should have arrived, you know your objectives."

"Eh." He told the monitor, knowing fully that Jumba could not hear a message that was sent five years prior. Between his fingers, he lifted the small pendant that Lilo had given him as a present, a few days before all this happened.. Inside the ship, he cried; hopelessness was taking over his heart. From what Jumba told him everything could be corrected, but that would be a long time from now.

Stitch took in heavy deep breaths. _"Lilo wouldn't want to see me cry, not now." _He told himself, holding back his tears. _"Lilo…what did I do wrong? How did I end up losing you…?"_ Though startled by all what was going on, he'd have five years to think about it. He strapped himself shut into the shuttle seats, and tore through the ether clouds; five years passed by, but to him for only five seconds.


	2. Forgotten

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 2: Forgotten

_Dear Diary,_

_I can't explain how I feel very well. The best way to describe it is... having the warmest heater next to you on the coldest day of winter, ripped away from you; letting you freeze to death. I miss him...I miss Stitch. I hated that this happened. I can't believe I lost him, and we just started talking to each other again. It was only a few days ago; we had talked to each other out on the hammock, declaring each other brother and sister. Stitch still hasn't found Angel._

_Angel...she's troubled Stitch the last few days, but now I understand how he feels. I tried to help him; I even went and bought him a pendant in the market. The color was green, which stands for promise, and hope. He even sneaked out and got me a red one, I told him why I had picked his color, and asked him why he picked red. 'Determination...and ambition.' He told me, because no matter what he does, to him I always seem to pull him through whatever's going on in his mind. He said that I'm able to surface his feelings, even when he doesn't know what they are. I wish he could surface mine right now, I wish he could be here right now. If only that 625 hadn't come to get us, and if only I hadn't made Stitch break it..._

Sounds of a good party were easily spotted; bright torches lit the sky all around so that the purple of the sun that had already set stayed in the sky for a little bit longer; music swept the ears and commanded everyone to dance even if they tried to resist it; the smell of food was too inviting for anyone to be polite, it simply begged to be eaten as hastily as possible.

Couples were strewn almost everywhere, every other second or so you'd see another pair. Some of them were young, little kids that had grown up too fast, had seen some trials of life they really shouldn't have, and tried to grow up as fast as they could to become adults.

Some were a bit older; tweens were more popular around the food and dance floors. Eating everything in sight, dancing with their dates or anyone they could get a hand of in their desperation to be cool or accepted. Some of them were pulling to the opposing walls where only boys or only girls sat and talked in a paranoid phobia to get out and find a person to talk to of the opposite sex.

More directed toward the beach, were the younger teens, older teens, and adults, separated into their own sections by undetermined boundaries. Some of them jumping into the blue sea next to the navy night; some staying on shore away from the torches to hide their faces as they locked together; some were in the moonlight, enjoying the sand between their feet and happily singing lowly against the music in the background, or staying silent all together and staring into each other's eyes.

But few couples, yet still some, were in the back of the party grounds. Near the nice and quiet trails that lead across babbling man-made streams meant to set the romantic mood of this lovely night's luau. Here was where the sound of music was just an echoing heartbeat, unnoticed unless intently listened for, droned out and put aside by the sound of the trickling water atop the loose pebbles that puttered and pattered through the streams.

A bench meant for two, was situated in the perfect spot. A light in the stream crossed the faces, of the two staring at each other. A fountain towered from a jet on the bottom of the rivulet, creating a soothing bubbling noise that enticed the two into speaking silently.

They sat with the blue light, glimmering against they're faces, as the sun went down from orange in the sky, to just a small purple band that wished everyone goodnight before crossing the horizon. The air smelled less salty here, than by the beach, almost fresh and clean like the water around the couple, sitting on the perfect bench.

The boy of the couple, held an embarrassed smile, and put his hand on top of the girl's. Bashfully touching the skin, pressing gently as though she was a paper maché doll. She smiled at his action, and tried not to laugh at his nobly bold move, that made him feel so embarrassed.

"You're almost seventeen, Lilo. Just a few more minutes until midnight." His voice softly proclaimed. "That'll make it ten years since we've been together." Lilo let out a small hefty laugh, slapping the boy's hand lightly to shoo him away from her.

"Kioni, you've done that every year," her voice stated, tenderly and fully, "don't you think you can do it without feeling like it's our first date all over again?" Kioni took the hand Lilo had shooed away, and ran it through his flat hair.

"I still think you spilled all that ice cream over me on purpose." They laughed at the incident in their past. The memory and look on Kioni's face, when four large scoops of half melted ice cream-along with Lilo herself-tripped and fell on top of him, staining his favorite shirt.

"I was seven, and clumsy." She assured him, "and besides, I was more embarrassed then you. How do you think it feels when you have everyone suspecting you used a 'trip' as a means to kiss a boy on a first date?" She traced her lips as she spoke.

"I have to admit though, whether you meant to kiss me or not, you played it very well." She screamed his name in a joking disgust, bopping his head. She laughed as he struggled to keep his balance on the bench, and tried to push him off all the way, but then found her face staring past him as he threatened to drag her along with his fall. They calmed their mockingly hateful feud and quietly sat again next to each other.

"You know, I wonder where I would be now, if that moment hadn't occurred and changed us both."

"By 'change' you mean made us fall in love?"

"Yeah. After grandpa passed away, I felt so horrible...and then you came along and asked me on a date. Since then, life's been a blur."

"Man...I remember grandpa Jookiba. He was always teaching me about, mathematics and science, things I wasn't that interested in. That is until he told me all about how science is involved with everything, even some things I didn't know about. Like skateboarding for instance."

"I only remember a few choice moments," Lilo said with a reflecting smile, "the way he used to put me on his lap and tell me those odd stories. He even told me that a friend of mine gave me this pendant, and that I should never let it go. Since then, I've kept it around my neck, hoping to figure out who that 'friend' was."

"When was this?" Kioni asked, not able to recall her telling him this story before.

"A little while...before our first date." She told him, looking up at the sky. The party had died down a great deal, and now just the few couples that bid each other farewell were staying for a few more moments. Lilo looked at the sky, pitch black against the twinkling stars, and the array of blazing and dying torches.

"It's past midnight, I'm seventeen." She told him, solemnly and happily.

"Happy birthday." He whispered to her, and kissed her cheek. She smiled and blushed as she turned her head.

"I love you, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight." Lilo said, kissing him, and getting up.

"I love you too, goodnight." Kioni said waving to her. He watched as she walked on down the path, just a few minutes to her home. _"Her sister's gonna be mad."_ He thought to himself, He sat for a bit longer on the bench, then later proceeded to his own house.

As Lilo walked along the path, her dress waving under her feet against the gentle breeze, and her pendant chirping as it banged against itself and her skin. As she strolled, she saw a large object coming from the sky. With blue jets, a red and white ship blasted through a fireball, and landed with a loud crash behind her quiet home.

She gazed with sudden surprise and amazement at this unreal phenomenon. She quickly ran up the blue wooden stairs, and tried the door.

"Nani, David, is anyone home?" She cried inside, but no response. She gave up calling for her guardians, thought for a second, and decided to run out back to see just _what_ she had witnessed. She ran around the patio and went into the backyard forest, where she hadn't been in a long time.

Sprinting for three or four minutes, she came upon a leafy meadow, with a small hill that she recognized. Atop the leaves, halfway into the meadow, was the red and white vessel; the very one she caught cascading to earth.

The door on the ship was apparently open, and small footprints that could be seen from her far away perch lead her to the hill that she felt was so familiar. They took her up, and over the hill, past a dead, withering tree, to the other side, where there she saw a small figure, about the size of a child.

"He-hello?" She called out to it, getting its attention. The small figure turned around, to reveal its wide black eyes; to flutter its long blue ears; and to gaze at her in a seemingly surprised yet relieved stance. Its arms were out to the side, at an angle, and its mouth slowly opened ajar in a grin, as if it knew her, and couldn't believe its eyes. She stared at the figure, not knowing whom it was-or rather _what_ it was-but still with the feeling that she had seen this thing before. "Do I...know you?"

The creature seemed to tense with an uproar of excitement and joy, it smiled with its wide, and let tears stream down the back of its cheeks. The creature ran toward Lilo, as if greeting her after coming back from a long journey, and tackled her. Though she wanted to run back to the house, something inside her told her not to run.

"Lilo, Stitch is finally home!" He cried with joy and relief, as he cried on her shoulder with white glistening tears against the light of the moon. Though awkward she felt, something comforted her, and made her embrace this creature back. "Stitch finally home again." The creature said to her.

"I'm glad you are, Stitch...but one thing bothers me," she replied to him, "how do you know my name...who _are_ you?"

** Drifting Timestream**

The morning sun glimmered through the window of Lilo's room; she had not slept all night. Her eye's bloodshot and her head matted. She sat up to the sun; now realizing she had not slept but been in daze all this time. Her mouth felt dry and coarse, her throat raspy and cold. As she took a deep breath in, the back of her nose stung with pain, she tried to swallow hoping that would sooth her passages, but it seemed like the dry saliva only made it worse.

With her efforts she shat up under the covers, and stared down at Stitch's mattress that lay right below her. She deeply remembered the past month; everything that had happened to them seemed so long ago now. Not moving, for a good long while, Lilo recalled every moment of the fight with Akibaba Kino that she could see through her blurry vision.

She recalled, before that event, how she had seen Angel fleeing from the backyard brush, away from the meadow of fallen leaves. How Stitch tried to hide that incident, when he came down the stairs and tried to act as if nothing happened. She remembered the look on his face when she had told him he saw Angel running, and how he still had her pink fur on his shoulder. She stopped recalling her memories, and quickly went out of her room into the hall, proceeding toward Jumba's room.

"Jumba?" She asked, knocking on the door.

"Come in little girl." He told her. Lilo opened the door, and stepped in. Jumba was on the far side of the room, bent over the make-shift dehydration machine he had made.

"Is it almost ready?" She asked meekly.

"Actually yes, is dehydrating as we speak, and I have sent message." He told her, in an announcing way. "626 should be arriving on earth right about now...well not _now_ but ten year's from now...eh...you know what I'm meaning to say." Lilo chuckled a bit.

The dehydration machine chimed to tell them it was done. Jumba pushed a small button near the bottom, and a small door opened to reveal a blue capsule. Jumba took the capsule in his hand, and turned to Lilo, who stared at him. He walked to Lilo, and handed her the small blue capsule.

"Hurry, is not much time left before this time stream ends." Lilo nodded to Jumba, and left the room, heading down the hall, and back to hers. She sighed heavily and clasped the pendant around her neck, holding up to her eye. It was large, on a black string, with a realistic looking ruby surrounded by fake golden sides.

"I hope you find this Stitch." She told herself, hiding the capsule containing the time machine. She let the pendant drop on her chest and thought about what would happen. _"Jumba said in the past we have to do something different. We have to change something, during the fight with 625." _She pondered for a long time, thinking of what they could do, it was possible she could tell Stitch in her diary.

_"That's it, I've got it!" _She exclaimed to herself, recalling the battle fully. She wasted no time, running for her diary, and clasping a pen in her trembling hand, she rushed to scribble down a note to Stitch. As she wrote, the world about her disappeared into blackness; the time stream they were in was breaking off from the main time stream. Though fear took Lilo, she hastily wrote her message, telling Stitch what she had figured out, but was not quick enough. Before the entire message was frantically written, her hand disappeared, along with the pen, and finally her whole figure.

Main Time Stream

Lilo inspected Stitch very carefully; panning over his small, plump, blue, fuzzy body; matching to his large black-pearl oyster-eyes and white gleaming pupil; turning his chin with her hand to the left, looking at his cheeks, his mouth, his nose, his hair, his ears, his teeth, his claws, feet, hands, toes, tentacles, and quills. Still, she could only recognize the familiarity of his form, and not recollect just _who_ exactly he was.

"I just can't put my finger on it..." She pondered, as Stitch sat on the green couch in the living room. "You say your name is...Stitch, right?" She questioned.

"Eh. Miga Stitch, ju Lilo." She looked at him again; still amazed at the fact that he had four arms, quills, and the two tentacles on his head that resembled the reeds in a swamp. Stitch gazed at Lilo, the older Lilo, and tried to see what had changed about her. He noticed her hair was a lot softer, her eyes were narrower, her neck was smaller, and her voice was patient, yet sounded as though she was in a hurry. Inside, Stitch's heart knotted at the sound of her voice; he wanted to hear her old voice, her charismatic chime that he always heard as she taught him something of earthen culture.

Lilo slumped back against the oak chair and cocked her head back in frustration of what was going on. Stitch drooped his head at her sigh and sat in his obedient dog position; his hands tucked into his feet and his head looked down at his toes. What bothered him the most was that he was almost completely omniscient to the whole situation. He hadn't forgotten what Jumba had told him; find the time machine. This meant he would have to either search the house for it-which he didn't want to do right now-or he would have to try to jog the teenaged Lilo's memories. Both scenarios were not to his liking, however, and he knew he had to hurry.

He didn't talk to Lilo at all since she had taken him back to the home from outside. While in the leaf filled meadow, after tackling her with joy, and thinking he would finally be able to correct the time flux continuum. Lilo surprised him to his disdain however, for apparent to him, she has forgotten who he was entirely. He remained silent unless spoken to; he wanted to let Lilo do the talking so that he could build on what she was thinking.

"I still don't understand it." Lilo began. "I'm walking home from my date with Kioni, and I see your ship coming from the sky and landing in my backyard. I think I'm going lolo." She clasped her hands together, looking at Stitch, trying to make him disappear from her imagination. She sighed again, got up, and headed toward the kitchen. "So, who's hungry?" She spoke rhetorically trying to keep her mind off of the events taking place, opening cabinets and pantries looking for something to whip up. "Ravioli? David says nothing beats amnesia like a can of Ravioli."

"David?" Stitch repeated to himself. _"Does that mean Nani is here as well? And Jumba, and Pleakley!"_ His hopes rose at the realizing that Jumba could still be around. "Lilo?" He asked lowly, while she prepared the microwave bowl and can opener. "Lilo?" He tried again to get her attention, and failed as she turned her back. He jumped off the couch and quickly shuffled his way into the blue painted kitchen, hopped upon the shelves near where Lilo was. She was busy putting the can of Ravioli into the blender out of sheer determination to elude the thoughts of her going insane. Stitch walked over casually as the blender whirred and whipped the meat and tomato juice around, and calmly tapped the button to turn the blender off.

"Lilo, where is Jumba?" He asked, with a serious, straight, and calm face.

"Who are you? This has to be some kind of prank." She said fiercely. Stitch's face instantly went from serious to fearful and sheepish at the way Lilo snapped back at him.

"Naga!" He said highly as Lilo began to take the hose from the sink and drench Stitch with a jet of water. As this commotion occurred, Nani and David arrived at the front door. They walked in laughing after having a great time at the post-luau dinner, and abruptly stopped there joy when they found Lilo, armed with the sink hose, assaulting Stitch-who looked to them like a life-imbued plush doll. Lilo looked over at Nani in relief and ran over to her.

"Nani, do you see that?" She asked, pointing to Stitch.

"Yeah, I see it, it's an oversized plush toy, what about it?"

"I think it _knows_ me." Lilo whispered, Nani double took at Stitch shrugged her shoulders; something told her this was going to be a long night.

Dear diary, 

_I can't sleep at all, it's 1 a.m. and I'm not able to close my eyes. This is the latest I've ever stayed up before. I'm not so worried anymore, about Stitch and everything, Jumba thinks that he's probably landed on earth and looking for the time machine already. Jumba won't tell me anything about the time machine, but what's strange is, he's going to dehydrate it. He's going to put it into a capsule, and I'm going to hide it; I know exactly where to put it, and I'll write it down here tomorrow. _

_At first we thought it was the real 625, but later we found out that he came from the future. According to Jumba, when he came the time stream was snipped right about when he arrived, but it split into three different directions sometime when we were on the spire yesterday. We failed to stop him from corrupting the time stream, that's why Stitch has to go back, so that we can have a second chance at stopping the stream from splitting. I'm going to try to get some sleep, I know Stitch will able to fix things up this time around, but I'm going to think about what we can do differently at the spire, something's gotta change at that point._

_But, I just hope that what 625 said...wasn't true..._

"Stitch, correct?" Nani asked.

"Eh. My name Stitch." He replied to her, holding back his impatience. He was once again on the green couch, David sat next to him, Lilo sat in another chair off to the side, and Nani was in front of the couch looking at the little blue experiment.

"And you know Lilo, or so you claim?" Nani chimed.

"Eh. Stitch know Lilo. Stitch know Lilo well."

"Ok then, what's your association with her?"

"Lilo ta miga achie-babas, miga rachuba tatoe nomishara." He replied in Turan. Nani looked at him with somewhat wide eyes, trying to figure out what Stitch just said.

"I'm sorry, can you speak English? I don't speak gibbereish." She told him, rudely. Stitch shook his head and began to tell Nani again in English, but Lilo interrupted him.

"He said that we were friends a long time ago...and that he just came back from a long journey."

"Eh." Stitch said to confirm what Lilo told the group.

"You understood what he just said?" Nani asked Lilo in surprise.

"I don't know why, but I could understand exactly what he said..."

"OK!" Nani screamed toward Stitch, "You're starting to scare me, I've known Lilo all my life and I don't remember you at all, there's something you're not telling us. I want to know where you came from." She said sternly.

"Miga togasha achuba-"

"_In English!" _Nani said lowly. Stitch lowered his ears and looked at his feet. Nani hadn't changed at all, she still yelled. He took a deep breath in, and tried his best to explain the situation.

"Stitch and Lilo friends long ago, but Stitch was launched in a shuttle and gone for a long time. Now Stitch back, ten years later though..." Nani sat down on a chair near David, whom had now fallen asleep, and looked at Stitch. She contemplated what he told her.

"So, ten years ago is when you knew Lilo?" She asked. Stitch nodded his head. "Do you remember him?" She asked toward her sister.

"I don't remember anything from that long ago, but for some reason he looks familiar. Do you think what he's saying is _true?_" Stitch looked at Nani, barely able to see her in the dim light.

"He does look familiar..." She trailed, "Maybe he is telling the truth." She slumped back in her chair and sighed. "I don't know what to say, it's not often that I come home to find an alien in my house."

"Should we let him stay?" Lilo asked, as if Stitch wasn't in the room to listen.

"As much as I wish I could say no, I don't think I have much of a choice. We'll let him sleep out back near the hammock. Get a rope, Lilo, we're going to tie him to the tree." With a small disapproving 'tsk' Lilo stood up and walked to the closet to get a long rope. Minutes later, Stitch was collared around the neck, and tied to the trunk of a large tree near orange hammock. He didn't growl once, and after Lilo left him saying goodnight, he praised himself for his good behavior.

It took a while for Stitch to fall asleep, the collar was uncomfortably gagging his neck along with his pendant, and the night air was chilly. Until now, he had tried not to think about the past, but slowly memories returned. However, he as much as he tried, he couldn't recall anything that happened during the past week; the last thing he remembered was falling asleep on the ground under the hammock outside. He remembered the hospital, Achie-baba Kino, and the talk that he had with Lilo, before they slept outside, but anything after that was just blotted out. As if that time period never existed. He knew exactly what happened during that time, everything from the meadow to the spire, but he couldn't envision any images of those moments in his mind.

Sadness coated him; he stopped trying to recall those moments and tried to focus on what to do next. He had to find the time machine, but that was going to be hard. He didn't know what it looked like, it could be disguised, it could be small, it could be hidden, or out in the open, too many possibilities.

_"I'll ask Jumba." _He thought, _"He'll definitely know where it is, I just hope he remembers too..." _Stitch took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and curled up into a ball. With a small hope for tomorrow, he was able to find slumber, and quickly dozed off into a dreamless sleep.


	3. Chroney

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 3: Chroney

"Stitch? Stitch. Wake up sleepy." Stitch opened his eyes and grunted as he felt a hand massaging his back. His arms tingled from sleeping on top of them, and his head fur was ruffled from tossing and turning. "Your not a morning person are you?" He heard a voice giggle.

"Lilo?" He asked. Through blurry vision he saw the face of his seven-year-old friend, dressed in a green moo-moo with white leaves. He pushed himself up off of his stomach, and an ounce of excitement hit him. "Lilo!" He cried with joy, but soon his beam faded as his vision cleared and he now saw past the illusion. The older Lilo stared back at him smiling.

"What?" She said at his bipolar gesture. "Your not happy to see me?"

"Oh, naga." Stitch said, hiding his saddened frown. "Stitch just..." He trailed.

"Just what?" She asked, helping him up.

"Stitch saw little Lilo, that's all." He said lowly. Lilo licked her finger and fixed up his hair a bit.

"I'm sorry." She said sympathetically, "You really miss the me you know, don't you?" She asked kindly.

"Eh, daruba."

"I don't know how I can help." She said undoing his collar, "I don't remember the first thing about you. I'm sorry for going ballistic last night, I panicked at the moment, I mean you gave me quite an eerie feeling, landing in my backyard and claiming you're an alien that knew me."

"It's ok, Stitch forgive." He replied, smiling again as he stepped to the left and sat.

"Nani and David left for work a while ago, David doesn't remember you either it seems." She paused, looking at Stitch. He appeared to be half thinking, half listening to her, so she continued. "You're pretty much free to roam around, I'm not going to stop you or anything." She got up off of her knees and headed toward the back door. "If you need me, I'll be inside." She began to open the door but then stopped and looked back at Stitch. "Are you hungry? What do you eat?"

"Naga nota...eggs?" He asked.

"I...guess I could make some scrambled eggs..." She said to herself, walking inside, her voice stopping as the door slammed. Stitch sat for a second and looked around. Everything was exactly like it was ten years ago, not much had changed, except the tower was fixed. He remembered how Gantu had broken it while taking back experiment 120, Jumba must have gotten around to fixing it, he assumed.

Stitch made no haste; he took his time in looking around. He wanted to see Jumba, but he also wanted to search outside for some reason. Whether it was the urge to explore and see what things were like ten years later, or just to comfort his anxiety over being a remnant in the future, he strode around the house to look at the scenery. He rounded the house; nothing seemed to be different except for a few things here and there. The house was painted with more of a blue, rather then a pink cotton candy color.

He stepped inside the front door, to the smell and sound of eggs squirming in a pot. Lilo gave no acknowledgement that she had heard him come in, Stitch assumed she knew he was inside, and began his search of the inside. The bookcase was still near the door like it's always been. Last night he had noticed that there were two new chairs by the couch, and now he was able to see that they were a reddish color. The small seat by the window had been changed to match the couch color, and now was stacked with magazines and other miscellaneous items.

Stitch slowly walked toward the stairs and paused at their base to look into the kitchen at Lilo. She was busily cooking for both of them, and barely glanced at Stitch at all. He smiled, just in case if she was looking at him, and proceeded up the steps, heading into the hallway.

The light was turned off, and the door to Lilo's room was open, letting loose a shaft of sunlight in the shadowed walkway. Stitch made his way for Lilo's room, and peered inside. The bed had been turned so its headrest was now against the wall with the window. Her room was mostly redecorated; pictures of Elvis Preasly covered most of the walls, near her bed were some other pictures of Lilo and her family, none had Jumba, Pleakley, him, or any other experiments in them. A small toy chest was wedged in between the dresser and the window seat, and a pile of books, albums, and the familiar turntable rested in a heap on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Stitch remained at the door, he dared not venture into Lilo's room without her permission. She seemed not to care, but still he didn't want to intrude. He shut the door, which darkened the hallway, and proceeded on, down to Jumba's room. After stepping up the small run of stairs, he stood before the door; for once he didn't hear the noises of some project Jumba was working on ringing behind it. Slowly raising his hand, he knocked on the door solidly five times, and did not receive an answer. Again he knocked, but silence still hid behind the door. Not bothering to knock again, he grasped the doorknob and turned it, letting the door creek open on its own.

The windows were shaded, and padded with dust, which also floated around the room, and softened the sunlight that managed to peek through the cracks of the blinds. Stitch's eyes adjusted to the dim light, and now he was able to see that this room had been unoccupied for a very long time. It was bare, the beds had no sheets, the desk was flat, and nothing was hidden in the drawers except dust. Stitch saw no reason to stay in the gagging room any longer; he quietly took his leave and shut the door, stepping out into the clean-aired hallway.

"Stitch, food's ready." Lilo hollered to him. Bolting down the hallway and reaching the stairs, he found Lilo still standing next to the railing. "C'mon down, before it gets cold." Stitch floated down the stairs and arrived at the table just as Lilo had placed a fork for him to use. Taking her seat, she swiftly wielded her fork and stabbed at her fluffy eggs.

Contrary to Lilo, Stitch sat in his chair and grasped a handful of egg with his claws and stuffed it in his mouth. Lilo looked at him slightly awed at his way of eating. He caught himself after seeing her expression, and meekly took the fork with his hand. Staring at it for a second, and then staring at how Lilo held her fork, he took a moment to coordinate the proper way of holding it, and mimicked the way Lilo ate.

"Lilo..." Stitch began after a moment of silence. "Where is Jumba?"

"Jumba? You mean Jookiba?"

"Eh. Jumba Jookiba, where is Jumba?" Lilo's quiet expression seemed to drop even further as she stabbed at her eggs again.

"Grandpa Jookiba...died...a long time ago." Stitch's ears twitched.

"How?" He asked. His hope now dimmed, he had hoped to find Jumba, whom would most likely know where the time machine was.

"Well, you see, grandpa Jookiba was a scientist, and a long time ago he was working on a project. But, before it was perfected the project sparked, and caused a fire in his room while he was asleep..." Stitch's ears drooped. "What do you need Jumba for?"She suddenly asked, noticing the fact that Stitch knew about Jumba. She had lost some of the memories she had with Jumba, and wondered if Stitch might be able to help her remember him better.

"Jumba made time machine." He replied quietly, his chin now laid on the table and his hands over his ears, to express his disdain toward the situation.

"What?"

"Jumba made time machine, so Stitch can go back home, back in time."

"Back in time?"

"Eh. Long story."

"Can you tell me? I have no idea what you're talking about." Stitch put down his hands and pushed himself back in his chair, thinking about how to explain to Lilo what was happening.

"Ten years ago, Stitch and Lilo were on mission." He began, "Stitch was sent into space on shuttle, and landed five years ago on unknown planet. Since then, Stitch used ship outside in meadow and come back to earth. Now, Stitch must find time machine Jumba made to go back and try to fix time stream."

"Fix the time stream?"

"Eh. Time stream was broken for some reason, Stitch has to go back and fix." Lilo nodded in partial understanding.

"I see." She said. "Stitch...can you tell me what it was like, ten years ago? Like, what did we do? Were we good friends?" She asked curiously.

"Stitch and Lilo best friends, Stitch live with Lilo, capturing Jumba's experiments mostly." He described her, with a storytelling tone.

"Capturing...experiments?"

"Eh. Experiments like miga." He pointed to himself.

"You mean Jumba made 'experiments'?"

"Miga number 626, other experiments were loose like Stitch."

"I know you're not lying, but I still can't remember or make sense of anything." Stitch looked in some disappointment, but was glad to be able to talk deeply with someone since he'd arrived here. It was only one day, and already Lilo was starting to sound like normal.

"Stitch cannot remember some things as well..." He began, "But remembers most things before Stitch went into space."

"What happened? Do you know?"

"All Stitch knows, is being in fight with another experiment that came from the future. Naga garu naga riamba sate." He said, shrugging his shoulders. His pendant jingled, catching Lilo's eye.

"You have a pendant," she stared at it gleefully "and it looks like mine." She pointed to hers. Stitch now saw her pendant against the red dress she wore, it was almost camouflaged against it. Without thinking, Stitch had a flash of an image through his mind; it was of him handing Lilo a red pendant, smiling, and of them talking about something.

"Stitch remembers giving Lilo pendant. Lilo gave Stitch pendant too." He said, pointing to his.

"Wait a minute, _you_ gave me this pendant?" She asked, her voice in a farfetched tone.

"Eh. A little while before Stitch left." He said. The conversation paused. He picked up his fork and began eating his lukewarm eggs again. Lilo began to talk more, staring off into space as she spoke.

"Grandpa Jookiba told me in a story that a friend gave me this pendant a long time ago. If what you're saying is true he must have been talking about you. He was very mysterious sometimes. Come to think of it, it was about two years after your probable leave that he was caught in the fire." Stitch gulped down his last bit of egg. He enjoyed talking with Lilo, the small spark of hope was now bright inside of him, and they had finally reached a common ground. Now he wouldn't be completely lost in confusion.

"Can Stitch search for time machine upstairs?" He asked, taking his plate and walking to the sink.

"Sure, if Jumba made the time machine chances are it's in his stuff. All of his tings were moved to the tower while we refurnished his room, and we haven't moved anything out of it since. I'll get you the elevator key." She said, standing up. Both of them headed toward the living room, Lilo leading, Stitch following, when the phone on the wall rang inside the kitchen.

"Argh, wait here ok?" Stitch nodded, and stepped in a bit to listen closer. Lilo picked up the phone and pushed the 'talk' button.

"Hello? Kioni, what's up?" Stitch's ears perked, though he didn't know Kioni all that well, Lilo always talked about her crush on him, Stitch was surprised that Kioni was still around. "Um...today? That may not be good timing...no, something came up." She said, looking at Stitch. "No, it's not an emergency, it's just that I'm occupied at the moment. Sure, I'll see about tomorrow. Ok, I love you," Stitch's eyes shot open.

"Lilo and Kioni..." He whispered to himself, his thoughts trailing. Lilo bid farewell on the phone and hanged it up on the wall, when she turned around Stitch's teeth were split in a wide grin.

"What?" She asked, not having a clue as to why he was so happy looking. Stitch began to chuckle, and ended up cracking up at what he had deduced.

"Kioni and Lilo are _boochieboes!_" He exclaimed, rolling onto his back and clasping his stomach with laughter.

"Boochie..._hey_ that's not funny!" She screamed in false rage. Lilo ran past Stitch's laughing seizer into the living room toward the bookcase, where she reached inside on the shelf and grabbed a key that lay dormant on a hook. She walked back to Stitch and tossed the key to him. "Go upstairs and search for that time machine you weirdo." Stitch took the key and ceased his laughter slowly to a stop as Lilo left the kitchen.

"Miga soka." He said still chuckling. Gripping the key, he walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs, but stopped halfway. Something in his mind bothered him, and another flash of a memory went through his head. In his mind he saw himself standing in darkness with 625 far in front of him. _"Because of you she's gone, it's all your fault that we can't see her anymore!" _His voice rang through Stitch's head, causing his heart to pound. Normally just remembering this wouldn't bother him, but behind this memory was a feeling of deep hatred coming from 625; something more then just a memory had crossed his mind.

"Stitch...are you ok?" Lilo asked, noticing the change in Stitch's mood. Stitch seemed to snap out of a trance, and look over at her.

"Stitch is...fine." He said, smiling. Lilo shrugged her shoulders and went into the kitchen to wash the dishes. Stitch proceeded up the rest of the stairs, walking toward the middle of the hallway where the elevator door was. Using the key, he unlocked the chrome metal door, and stepped inside the dark shaft. He pressed the button on the side, but it didn't work. He pressed it a few more times, and finally getting fed up with it, he punched it, breaking it. Grunting to himself, he resorted to climbing the walls of the shaft up to the top of the tower.

_Dear diary_

_I've spoken with Jumba, and he says that it's inevitable for this time strand to break off and simmer into darkness...I wonder what will happen during that time. I hope Stitch finds the time machine soon; I still can't get to sleep. I've tried for a few hours now, but knowing Stitch is sometime in the future ten years from now really bothers me...I keep wondering if he's safe or not, or even if he got Jumba's message. I hope he's ok._

_I wonder if Stitch will recognize me in the future, I wonder what I'll look like. What if we don't live in Hawaii ten year's from now? Nani was thinking about moving away a long time ago, but she never got the money. Well, I know where I'm going to hide the time machine, Jumba says it will be small and round like an experiment pod, which is just the right size to hide. He told me to write it down, and tell no one about it; 625 is still on the loose and if he finds it we have no chance. I'm still trying to think about what we can do differently, and I've come up with a few ideas but they don't seem to really fit well. I'm going to try to get some sleep again._

Like the hallway, the upper floor of the tower was dark, except for the small amount of light that peeked through the dust on the windows. Stitch walked over to each window and opened them up, having to fumble over many boxes and other bulky objects. _"If the time machine is anywhere, it will be here." _Stitch thought to himself. His hands on his hips, he surveyed the room, lots of things to go through. However, Stitch wanted to search for Jumba's computer as well, that may lead to some answers on the whereabouts of the time machine. Stitch set to work plunging into some boxes; finding many inventions, blasters, ammunition, and other such weaponry. _"How can Lilo not remember _this_ stuff?" _He asked himself in amazement.

Taking a half hour to search through a tenth of the boxes, he was able to find Jumba's computer, buried between two unfamiliar works. Luckily the battery was still usable, and he was able to turn the computer on with no problem at all. Taking only a second to warm up, the first thing that showed on the monitor was two large words in red pixels: Message Sent. Stitch clicked a button, and a new option appeared. 'Replay Message? Yes, No' Stitch recalled the message that it must've been talking about, when he was aboard the cryogenic shuttle five years ago on the wasteland gas giant. He had forgotten most of the message and decided to hear it again. Clicking yes, the screen turned into a video player, and played the same message that Stitch had heard five years prior:

"626...please listen 626, listen to me very carefully. The 625 from the future, has sent you in a journey through space. Though I can't tell you exactly what planet you are on right now, I do know its coordinates. Lilo came to me, asking me to find you, by the time I locked onto your signal, you were too far away to be retrieved, and there was nothing I could do, but let you and the ship go about your course.

You should be receiving this message shortly after your cryogenic state is thawed, if you don't receive it, I only hope that you can figure out what to do. Stitch...the computer shows that something has happened, and somehow in some way, the time flux continuum has been split in three directions.

We are being separated from the main stream entirely, but you are able to rejoin the mainstream, I don't know if this will make you panic-I hope it doesn't-but to be honest by the time you hear this message, five years will have gone by here on earth. There is nothing we can do about that, what is done now...is done."

Don't worry though, I have sent the intergalactic space cruiser-the red one-it has locked onto your transport ship's location and is heading to you as we speak, by my calculations it shouldn't be harmed by any showers or flares, at least I hope not anyway."

But, onto more important matters, I must prepare you 626, if you're going to go back to earth five more years will pass, and Lilo will be quite old. I am working on a time machine that will be able to send you back to this time, before the stream was frayed, so that you can hopefully fix it. However this time machine has one minor difference then the surfboard one; no one but you will have memories of what has happened here, after you go back, this whole trip will be in your mind only."

Lilo has agreed to write down the location of this time machine, so that in the future when you find her she will be able to give it to you. I don't want doctor Hamsterveil or anyone else to get they're hands on it, having a future version of 625 was great enough of a challenge for you to handle."

Find Lilo when you get back to earth, she will help you get the time machine, but this is the most crucial part of your mission; something has to be different. Sensors show that something happened in the battle that threw the time flux offset, something happened, or did not happen, and caused the splitting of the three times."

Stitch, Lilo wishes me to tell you that what is around your neck is similar to the actual key to the location of the time machine. Good luck my friend, and hurry, having three severed time streams will cause the continuum to collapse if they are left stranded for too long. As long as you're able to find the machine though, everything will be fine. Now go, the ship should have arrived, you know your objectives."

The message ended abruptly. The red words returned to ask if the message was to be replayed again, Stitch put the computer down. He went over the last part of the message in his mind. _"Lilo has agreed to write down the location of this time machine...Lilo wishes me to tell you that what is around your neck is similar to the actual key to the location of the time machine."_

The first part of the message meant that Lilo had written the location down somewhere, but Stitch couldn't think of where; the second part made no sense to him at all, but it still caught his attention. Stitch took the computer with him, and headed downstairs, through the hallway, and to the living room. Lilo was on the couch watching a program on the television.

"Does Lilo know where the time machine is?" He asked, catching her by surprise. She didn't notice him come downstairs, and she was startled by the sudden question.

"You mean the one Jumba made for you? No, sorry, I have no idea where it is. What brings that question up all of a sudden?" Stitch handed her the computer, his heart pumping with excitement. Lilo played the message and listened to it twice. "I'm supposed to have it written down somewhere?"

"Eh. Can Lilo remember?" He asked, trying not to raise his hopes in case they might fall.

"Not exactly, that must be in the gray area of my mind. Grandpa Jookiba never told me about this at all." Stitch's throat knotted with thought.

"Does Lilo have any idea where message might be?"

"I wouldn't know off of the top of my head," she said turning off the television, "but there are some things in the attic that I moved out of my room when I redecorated it." She told him. Stitch nodded his head, and took the computer with him up to the attic.

He sighed, again he had to venture in the dust filled crypt, but the attic wasn't as bad as the other rooms. Not many boxes were in storage, and it was easy to find the section that was Lilo's old things. He searched through a few boxes looking for any papers or documents. He was able to narrow it down to a small pile of papers and a few journals.

He spent five minutes scanning through each one, and found nothing. Desperation took him, and he frantically searched the few crates that belonged to Lilo once more. He found a few more things he overlooked; a spiral and a diary. The spiral contained nothing but old drawings, a few that he recognized, but many that he didn't. Lastly, he moved on to the diary. He read a passage inside, and realized it was Lilo's. He read another passage, trying to find out if this was an old diary, or a new one.

After three passages, he read on, now he knew that this diary was being used exactly when he was hurled into space. Four more entrys later, he came upon one that he read halfway through, and did not finish. It talked about how she felt just after he had lost the fight on the spire, and it began to put a bad feeling in his mind. Reading only snippets of the next passages, he came across one that was shorter, and cut off at the end. The entry read:

_Stitch,_

_Jumba has made the time machine, and I have hidden it. It is a small blue capsule, a bit different looking then from an experiment pod, but generally it's the same. I've hidden it in my pendant; I found out that it opens up in the back. I imagine yours does too, but that doesn't really matter right now. I don't care who I am, how I act, or even if I'm still around now, but find my pendant and get that capsule. It's dehydrated, so you have to add water to it. I'm still trying to figure out what to do differently during our encounter with 625, please try to figure that out soon. Jumba says that this time machine will take you back in a different way, you'll most likely end up some time after I was at the hospital. Don't do anything extremely different then what happened originally, otherwise that might throw the stream off once again. Just play it out like it happened, with the exception of the change. Good luck Stitch, please come home soon, I miss you._

_I can't write very much now, the world around me is growing dim for some reason, I think I know what you have to change Stitch, remember the conversation we had at the hospital, in that conversation you..._

The message ended, and Stitch was left in confusion. _"What about the hospital?" _He wondered, _"What does she mean by the conversation?" _He closed the journal, and sighed inward. He knew where the time machine was now. With a normal stride he climbed down from the attic, pushed up the door and walked downstairs to find Lilo still on the couch watching television.

"Lilo, Stitch found the time machine." He said to her. She turned off the television and quickly turned around to face him.

"Really?" She asked excitedly, "Where is it?"

"Can Stitch see Lilo's pendant?" Hesitantly, Lilo put her hand around her pendant, and lifted it off of her neck.

"What do you need it for?" She asked, watching Stitch examine it. He said nothing, but turned the pendant over and tapped on the back of it. Lilo could hear a soft thumping sound coming from inside the pendant that she'd never heard before. Stitch felt his nail across the back of the pendant and found a small notch. He lifted the notch, and inside was the small capsule. Lilo gazed in wonder at what Stitch held in his hand. "What is that?"

"Experiment pod..." Stitch mumbled to himself. The capsule was smaller then a normal sized experiment pod, small enough to fit in Stitch's palm with ease. "Stitch need water." He said running to the kitchen. Lilo followed quickly as Stitch pulled the faucet handle and pulled up the drain. Water filled the sink quickly, as Stitch dropped the capsule into the flooded sink. A bright light shined in Stitch's eyes, causing him to wince and step back. As his vision returned normal, he saw before him an experiment. Just under Stitch's own height, this experiment was white bodied, with a violet chest shade. Its fur was slick and short, and it's eyes looked omniscient.

"You are 626, also known as Stitch, am I correct?" The experiment said in proper English.

"Eh. Miga Stitch."

"Greetings Stitch, I am Chroney. My purpose is to transport you back in time, after that I will cease to exist." He said in a soft calming tone.

"This is an experiment by grandpa Jookiba?" Lilo asked.

"Eh. This is time machine." He told her.

"Lilo," Chroney spoke, "I thank you for keeping me safe all this time."

"You're...welcome?" She replied.

"626, are you ready to go back in time?"

"Eh." Stitch replied.

"Very well, come here," Stitch walked over to the experiment and stood beside him. "Lilo, because of you this future will change, and you will be able to remember 626, your efforts helped a great deal. 626," he turned to Stitch, "It will take me a while to find a safe point in time to drop you off before the stream was severed, you may actually see some events that have occurred prior to that point, so please do not be alarmed." Stitch nodded. Chroney motioned his hands and put them together in front of him like some kind of monk. A bright aura surrounded Stitch and Chroney, as they began to disappear and become opaque to the setting behind them.

"Good luck Stitch, tell myself I said hi." Lilo said, a tear falling down her check. She never liked saying goodbye to anyone, even a stranger that she barely knew. As the world vanished around Stitch, he was thrown into a tunnel; the walls of the tunnel were like water, showing him everything that happened during his ten years absence. Inside Stitch was relieved; he was going home once more. But now, a new task awaited him. Already a lot had happened to him, he felt worn out and tired, but he knew that this adventure was just beginning.


	4. Back Through The Rabbit Hole

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 4: Back Through the Rabbit Hole

The tunnel seemed endless, there was a constant flare at the end, but it never seemed to get closer or to grow smaller. Behind him, where he had left, the tunnel stayed, but it seemed close in upon itself. It was hard for Stitch to believe that he was actually traveling through raw time itself. The experiment ran ahead of Stitch, but an aura around him allowed Stitch to somehow float and keep behind him.

All around Stitch moments could be seen; many glimpses of what happened during his ten years absence sprayed about outside of the aquatic like walls of the tunnel. Every now and then something would become clear and catch his eye, and seemingly catch up to the speed at which he and Chroney were traveling.

Stitch didn't speak as he saw everyone quickly revert from old, to young. The fire that occurred in Jumba's room was in reverse; Jumba looked as though he were going back to sleep instead of waking up, and the embers seemed to curl up and disappear instead of shooting out and consuming the room.

"Chroney, what is happening?" Stitch asked over the roar that seemed to come all around Stitch.

"I am taking you back through the tunnel of time." He responded charismatically, "Are you uncomfortable?"

"Naga, is just weird. But, one thing bothers Stitch. Stitch and Lilo traveled time before, and changing past effects future...this feels risky to Stitch."

"Do not worry, Jumba has told me about your familiarity with time travel. However what you've probably experienced is different then what I'm doing. There are two ways to travel through time; going out of the tunnel and back in, or traveling back through the tunnel all together. The machine that you and your friend Lilo used to travel time used the first method, while I use the latter."

"Is difference in methods?" He asked, not quite sure what Chroney was trying to explain.

"Precisely. Using the first method cuts the time stream, and unless everything is done the second time exactly as it was done the first time, that causes a reaction with the stream causing it to split. However going back straight through the tunnel is much safer, and less damaging, because it doesn't involve cutting through the shell of the tunnel."

"So Stitch can change future still?"

"Yes, but be careful not to be too different then before, it's still possible to split the time stream even with this method."

"Stitch understands." He told Chroney with a nod.

"Good. Now, I must concentrate, please be patient."

"Eh." Stitch replied, and returned to observing the scenes that took place outside the tunnel. _"So we're traveling through the tunnel directly...that means that the aquatic looking wall must be the shell of the tunnel..."_ As Stitch continued to try and apply what Chroney told him about time and traveling, the images around him were becoming more and more recent to the lyses period. He also observed that the aura around him and Chroney was beginning to grow thicker and brighter.

Moments later, Stitch caught out of the corner of his eye, the image of his red Galactic Empire shuttle hurling through space, backwards of course. Almost as soon as he had spotted it, the image dissolved and came back to a different setting. The young Lilo and Kioni that he recognized were together, standing inside an ice cream shop. Stitch wondered if Slushy was there, but did not see him. For a second the image ran backward, but then paused. Stitch looked at Chroney, whom was glancing ahead. He had stopped moving them for some reason, but Stitch didn't question, he took the chance to look at more frozen images; some of his ship, some of Jumba, some of Pleakley, many of Lilo and Kioni, all of them stretching far down the tunnel.

Without a word Chroney closed his eyes and began to move them through the tunnel again. Except now all the images were no longer in reverse. Glancing, Stitch found the image he had spotted earlier, of Lilo and Kioni. Kioni proceeded on to the table while the clerk handed her two ice cream cones. Lilo skipped toward the table Kioni was heading to, and conveniently tripped in mid skip, causing her to dive at Kioni. Stitch chuckled and closed his eyes with a mocking 'ouch' gesture.

Suddenly Stitch's ears began to ring as the howling of the tunnel stopped. He peered at Chroney who now had his eyes open and was looking ahead, but he continued to take them through the tunnel. As the chime in Stitch's ear died down, he could hear voices all around him outside of the tunnel. An image to his left showed him and Lilo running through some sort of brush, and arriving onto a spire.

That image left, and was replaced by another image of him and Lilo. This time standing in the meadow of leaves out in their backyard, where Stitch had met Angel before fighting Achie-baba Kino, and where Stitch had landed his ship ten years in the future. Lilo dragged Stitch by his hand, pushing through the leaves and coming up to a small hill with a strong, thick tree close to the top.

_"It's over here!"_ She told him in the image, her voice echoed throughout the tunnel. _"C'mon, in the tree, hurry!"_ Stitch growled and tried to tug away, but ended up being picked up and carried by Lilo the rest of the way up the hill. She dropped him at the top and pointed at the tree.

_'This is where I followed it, and I found this right here."_ She pointed inside a carved section of the tree. It looked to be much like a cache for some hidden treasure, or a hole to put things in. Stitch climbed up on his feet, and peered inside the tree. In the image Stitch saw only a piece of paper inside the pith of the tree, but before he could view it any further the image dissipated.

He searched the shell for another image, and caught one of him receiving his pendant from Lilo, but had to resort to finding another as that one vanished a moment after. Stitch felt a jerk all around him, as Chroney abruptly stopped. There were only a few frozen images around them; one of Pleakley baking in the kitchen, another of Lilo and Nani talking to each other in the living room, and the third showed the dimly lit room of the hospital, and Stitch pulling himself up on the bars of the hospital's bed.

"Hm..." Chroney mumbled to himself. "I missed it somehow. Stitch, I'm going to take us slowly forward through the tunnel, let me know if you find a good place to leave the tunnel."

"Ok." Stitch said droningly. He stared at the image showing the hospital room, watching and listening the moment over again. He felt his body become slightly lighter as Chroney started once again forward through the time stream, slowly this time. The images were showing themselves at normal speeds, and were not disappearing as quickly as before. The voices of the conversations did not echo anymore as well, it was as if he was reliving the moment all over again.

"Did you see if Angel made it out ok?" He heard Lilo ask through the image. Stitch stared at himself as a third party, listening to the image as if he had no idea what was going to happen. He tried to block the emotions that came back to him while watching himself purse his lips and shake his head slightly.

"I don't care..." He heard himself speak, "I-"The door to the room opened and he heard the nurses' voice telling him it was time to leave. There was a moment of silence as Stitch stared off in the distance in the image. "I'm sorry." He finally spoke. Stitch had to rethink about what took place in the conversation that he had missed, but his thought's were interrupted by Lilo speaking.

"Just promise me one thing..." She said looking deeply at the Stitch in the image. He leaned inward toward Lilo a bit, and closed his eyes looking downward. Stitch felt his body beginning to grow heavy; the pull of the time stream was lessening on him.

"Anything." He said to Lilo, both in the image and in the time stream. He had been so concentrative about the recent events that he could not recall exactly what she had asked him during this conversation. He listened sharply, his heart pumping as it did when he was actually physically there, instead of just watching from the sidelines. He waited with renewed anticipation as Lilo shifted herself in the bed to touch his image's cheek gently.

"Never scare me like that again." Stitch slightly gaped in wonder and empathy as he saw the saddened expression on Lilo's face; he never knew how seriously she had meant it.

"Lilo." He said loudly, reaching his hand toward the image. Something sparked inside of him, making him want to erase the expression off of her face and replace it with the cheerful smile she always wore.

"Stitch, now!" Chroney cried, utterly scaring Stitch with surprise. Stitch didn't react quickly enough, and reflexively Chroney shot toward Stitch, gripped him in both hands, and with surprising and accurate force, hurled him toward another image; one of him sleeping under the hammock in the night sky, just after his touching conversation with Lilo.

Chroney watched as his companion flew into the shell of the time stream, and fuse with his self in the image. Chroney let out a sigh of relief as he witnessed the ghostly Stitch that he traveled with possess it's own self. For a moment he paused in the time stream, waiting.

"What's going on?" He asked himself aloud, "I should have disappeared by now." He looked himself over, still solid. "Why am I still here? My purpose was to take Stitch through the time stream safely, and after that I was to have ceased to exist. What could have gone wrong? Did I do something inaccurately?" His thought's were interrupted by a loud, deep laugh with a Russian accent.

"No Chroney, you did nothing inaccurately, you did your program precisely." Came his creator's voice.

"Jumba? Jumba! Why haven't I ceased yet?" Chroney shouted.

"Because, you have one more purpose that I did not tell you about." Jumba's voice came slyly.

"What then? What other use could I have? I can only bring one person through the tunnel of time, and that was Stitch. I can't take anyone else besides myself."

"And yourself is all you need, listen carefully Chroney. I need you to retrieve something for me. You should no by now that 626 must change something during his encounter with the future 625, but I cannot tell what change has to take place. I need you to find the lost time strand that shows the battle in which 626 failed, and show it to him as soon as possible. No one but he, and maybe Lilo, are able to discover what must be done differently." Chroney paused for a moment after Jumba's words, closing his eyes.

"I understand, Jumba. I will fulfill my purpose." Chroney opened his eyes, and rushed through the time stream's walls to search the lost strand. "I just hope I can retrieve it in time..."

"Stitch? Stitch. Wake up sleepy." Stitch grunted at the sound of Lilo's voice; he lay on his back in the fresh smelling grass, face up under the hammock. "Are you going to get up or not?" Stitch mumbled to himself as he opened his eyes. During the previous night he had something more like a nightmare then a dream. He dreamt he was not able to get home from the past, and had to live in the future with the older Lilo for the rest of his life.

The reality of the dream still lingered on Stitch's mind, his grogginess kept convincing him that his nightmare _was_ reality, and so he dreaded opening his eyes. Lilo was fed up at his slow pace of waking, and forced his eyes to open faster. The sunlight inundated him, the brightness caused his eyes to blur and water. His hands shot upward toward his face as he scrunched up into a sit, rubbing his eyes frantically to sooth the pain of the sudden bright light. After the pain subsided, he closed his eyes and laid back down on his back.

"Sorry about that Stitch, but you still have to get up..." Stitch growled and opened his eyes. He cocked his head back to see Lilo's head from the shoulders up, leaning over him. "Are you gonna stay awake?"

"Ok ok, Stitch is..." As his vision cleared, he realized that the face towering over him was that of the young Lilo, not the older version. His voice trailed as he tried to figure out why he woke to the Lilo he had missed so much.

"You're...what?" She asked, with a questioning voice.

"...Back..." He whispered with a smile, remembering the day before. His deep sleep had made him forget temporarily.

"Are you feeling ok?" Lilo asked putting the back of her hand near his neck. He grasped her hand with excitement, with a very coordinated whirl he went from laying on his back to sitting on his knees facing Lilo.

"Stitch better then ok, Stitch back home!" He cried with glee and toothy grin. He took Lilo into a tight hug, she hugged back, just out of response. "Stitch missed Lilo." He said lowly.

"What are you talking about? Where did you go? Did you wander off after our talk last night?" Stitch's smile drooped a small bit.

"Ju naga redumba?"

"Remember what?"

_"Only you will remember everything that happens after you get back from the future..." _Jumba's voice spoke to Stitch in his head. Stitch's smile opened with thought. To him, leaving on earth, fighting 625, and meeting Lilo in the future was in his mind as memories, fresh and clear. But to Lilo, it was just the day after their talk the night before, she had no memories of Stitch's failure at the spire, or any other event that would take place in the days to come. Stitch's depression and panic turned into peace and tranquility, as he thought more about how Lilo didn't remember anything. _"That means she never lost me, and never missed me. I'll make sure that she never has to miss me again."_

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, "and what are you talking about, what am I supposed to remember?" Stitch looked back at her with rejuvenated calmness.

"It does not matter, Stitch tell later." He said, letting go of Lilo. _"I know what's going to happen next," _He thought, _"But...until then I'll pretend like I don't. I'm just happy to be back..."_


	5. Infiltration

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 5: Infiltration

"I still don't see why I have to go with you to the stupid store." Lilo huffed as she and Nani entered the market. Her arms were cross and her eyes narrowed.

"I already told you, Pleakley needed someone to stay behind and clean the house for him, and I needed someone to come with me to the store."

"Why not Stitch?" She asked.

"Uh huh, yeah, great idea! I'll take the wrecking ball _to the store with me._" Nani lashed back sarcastically, waving her arms in the air to mock a brilliant idea. Lilo scowled deeper. "Ok look, you don't have to come along with me, just stay in the store. If you want I'll buy you something, as long as you _stay in the store._" Nani bent down and lifted Lilo's face to look her in the eye.

"Alright." Lilo replied with a sigh.

"That's a good Lilo." Nani cooed, hugging her sister. "Meet me back here no later then..." she looked at her watch, "Six, ok? I have to get dinner started." Lilo nodded. "Alright then, and remember s-"

"I know, stay in the store." Lilo interrupted. Nani half smiled, got up to her feet, and preceded down to an isle far to the left. Lilo walked over to the magazine stand and slumped against the wall, sliding down into a sitting position as if she were exhausted. "I wonder if Stitch is as bored as I am..." She trailed.

"Toom-daraga!"

"No no no, put that down! No don't throw it-agh!"

"Eheheha, what is wrong Pleakley? I thought you said Stitch was going to help you clean."

"He will, you _will_ help me clean."

"Cleaning stupid, quicker this way."

"Throwing things around is _not _cleaning." Pleakley scolded, taking a bat and hitting Stitch on the head. "Now you behave and help me clean." Stitch growled, took the bat from out of Pleakley's hands, and devoured it.

"Naga." He replied.

"Well little mister, you're either going to help me clean, or you might as well go somewhere else, because I have a job to do. That Achie-baba Kino thing really tore the place up and I gotta fix it!"

"Ok...ok..." Stitch sighed, "Stitch go away." He lulled, slouching his shoulders and heading toward the front door.

"Hey now," Pleakley spoke apologetically, "I didn't mean it that way..."

"Is ok, Stitch find something else to do. No problem." He replied in the same lulling tone as he walked outside the door. He crouched down after closing it to listen if his act played out.

"Poor little guy, I didn't mean to hurt his feelings." Pleakley said to Jumba, Stitch snickered unheard outside the door.

"Bah," Jumba said, straightening the newspaper he had been reading the whole time, "No needing to be sorry. 626 was putting on act." Stitch listened harder, not laughing any more.

"Well if he was then that was a pretty horrible thing to do." Pleakely stated louder then normal. Stitch peered over the bottom of the window on the front door, and instantly let down as he saw Pleakley staring his direction. Growling in defeat, he trotted to the hammock. He lay down with his eyes open, wondering when Lilo would get back from the store. He wanted to tell her about what happened. He also had a small desire to catch another experiment; they hadn't seen one besides Slushy since 120. He sighed, thinking of how to tell the story to Lilo once she got back.

Lilo was growing more impatient, it was two-thirty and she had spent what felt like an hour at the store already. She wanted to go home and do something with Stitch. Anything would do; even if it was just wrestling or play chess, he was returning to normal now that he sorted out his confusion, and she was sure he would do something with her now.

As she came around the different aisles she looked at all the displays and items for sale, not really wanting to buy any of them, but just browsing to pass time. When she came to the end, and turned the corner, the display on the outside caught her eye. On the display were open pendants; each one was similar, except for the stone in the center was a different color. She grabbed one of the pendants, a yellow one, and examined it closely. The stone was fairly big, and a gold rim the size of a quarter's side surrounded the circumference of the stone. The pendant fit in her hand, a bit smaller then her palm, and the back of it was very thick.

She put it back and scanned over the other colors. A rainbow of selections, and to the right of them all, was a long sheet of paper pasted on the wall. "Pendants of Meaning" was at the very top of the strip, and all down it showed the colors of each pendant and what each color meant. Yellow was for charisma and wit, blue was for courage and perseverance, orange was for sly and looks.

"You know," she said to herself, "I kind of want to get Stitch one. Hopefully it'll raise his spirits a bit more." Peering at the strip of paper more closely, she looked for words that described-to her-how she thought of Stitch after what he's been through. "I think maybe...green." She stated, now sifting through the green pendants. "For promise and hope. This one." She said, pulling her choice out. Like the other pendants, the stone was fairly large, but this stone was more centered, and seemed to have the smoothest feel out of the others. Quickly she ran all the way back to the spot where she and Nani were supposed to meet. Her sister was already there, and almost done purchasing her groceries.

"Wait!" She hollered coming closer, Nani turned to see her sister rush in and screech to a halt from out of nowhere. "I want to buy this." Lilo demanded. Nani took the pendant that Lilo displayed and checked the price tag on the back. She smiled at Lilo and had the cashier ring it up. The ride home seemed long and quiet to Lilo.

"Hello? We're home." Nani said coming through the door. Jumba still sat reading his newspaper, peeking up to see Lilo walking in carrying two bags under her arms, and a necklace in her right hand.

"Ah is good to be seeing you and little girl." He replied, returning to his article.

"Wow, I'm surprised, Pleakley did a good job." Nani surveyed over the spotless room. Lilo wandered off into the kitchen to find Stitch.

"Yes, did not take long. But I must say, loud sounding vacuum machine is starting to get little teensy bit irritating." Nani continued on to the kitchen, after she passed Lilo poked her head around the corner and looked into the living room.

"Jumba have you seen Stitch?"

"Not for long time, no. Last seen he was heading out front door and around house. Now please, am reading newspaper. Is very interesting article on hot wind generator." He stated pointing at a picture in the newspaper. Lilo squinted her eyes at the picture.

"Jumba, that's a hair dryer." She said explanatorily. Jumba mumbled and returned to reading, Lilo thanked him and went up to her bedroom. Quickly rummaging for something fabric and small, she found a leather pouch that was the perfect size. Slipping the pendant into the pouch, she looked outside her window, the sun was setting and the sky was turning from orange to purple.

She slid the window open and crawled outside, her dress getting slightly caught. Standing in the warm evening gleam, with a gentle breeze constantly surrounding her, she called out for Stitch to see if he was still around the vicinity. She received no answer. Stitch was nowhere to be found; not by the broken tower, not on or under the porch, not even by the hammock.

"Stitch." She called again, walking into the brush. "Stitch!" She called again, and stopped. A ruffled noise came from the string of bushes a yard ahead of her. A bit jarred, she tiptoed forward cautiously. "Stitch? Stitch, is that you?" She whispered. There was no noise in return. Stepping even closer to the bushes, she hesitantly put her hands to spread the leaves apart, and thrust her head through the middle. Pausing and seeing nothing, she let her heartbeat slow down before retreating back out. Still shivery, she dusted her dress off while turning around and walking, and only a few steps did she take before she ran into something in her path. Startled, she looked up to see Stitch's toothy grin, which in her present jumpy state caused her to leap back with utter fear, dropping the pouch holding the pendant.

"Gotcha!" Stitch said laughing. Lilo stayed on the ground still catching her breath. Stitch lowered his hand to help her up.

"That wasn't very funny." Lilo said gasping for breath, but still smiling.

"Stitch sorry." He said, moving his hands behind his back and looking down a bit.

"It's ok, I actually needed something like that to keep from dying of boredom." Lilo turned around and picked up the leather pouch. Stitch eyed the pouch curiously, the object alerting his attention. Swiftly he came over and sniffed the pouch for second, before reaching out and snatching it from Lilo's grip. "Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Ooo, macaba." Stitch mumbled, turning the pouch upside down and shaking it. The pendant dropped into his hand. He threw the pouch back onto the floor and clasped the pendant with both hands, turning and it and examining it from a few angles before pointing to it. "Iba ict?"

"It's a pendant."

"Huh?"

"You know, a pendant, it's like a necklace, but I think it's less girly." Stitch gazed at it more closely, and held it up to the setting sun. The green stone shimmered in his eyes.

"Eegaligoo..." Stitch took the long, black strand around the pendant and slipped it over his ears, fitting it perfectly around his neck.

"I wanted to give it to you as a gift. I thought you might like it, since...about last night and all..." Lilo said blushing with embarrassment, and looking down. "I picked green, because it described you the most; promise and hope."

"Thanks." He said warmly, hugging her. _"Even though this happened already, it still feels like it's the first time..."_ He thought, as they walked back to the house, the sun vanishing behind them. _"And tonight I have to return the favor."_

"I'm kind of glad Hamsterveil has decided to temporarily cease chasing after experiments. It'll give us tomorrow to go on a little vacation." Gantu happily said as he and 625 returned to the ship.

"Yeah but when he gets back from his depression he's probably going to make you do more work." 625 smirked. As they entered the ship, 625 walked into the store room while Gantu checked the experiment container.

"Hey, 625, come here." He urged, before 625 disappeared into the forest of boxes.

"Whaddya want?"

"Look at the computer." 625 hopped onto the counter and eyed the experiment alert panel on the sphere display computer. He raised his eyebrow when he saw the number that the computer showed.

"That can't be right...push the button." He demanded. Gantu did so, and the computer turned on.

"Warning!" It droned in its digital tone, "Experiment 625 has been activated." The two looked into the sphere to see the computer's picture of 625.

"Hey what's this thing trying to pull? I'm already activated, and that isn't me, that just looks like me with muscles instead of my better physique!" 625 exclaimed pointing at the experiment the computer showed. It looked exactly like 625, except his four arms were extended, and the round pudgy body was replaced with unusually bulky muscles. His face also changed. It no longer had the charming smile that he carried with him, but a pained, cold, scour, with a scar running across his face, just under his left eye.

"Ah this things just busted." Gantu huffed, hitting the computer hard.

"I wouldn't be too sure." 625's voice came deep and menacingly.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Gantu growled, moving his face in toward 625.

"Hey tubby, that wasn't me that just said that!" 625 said quivering. Gantu didn't second-guess 625's words, and reflexively drew his blaster, quickly scanning the room.

"Show yourself!" He shouted, darting his eyes left and right. However he was looking in the wrong direction, above them both in the shadows, the 625 from the future clung onto the ceiling. Silently he let loose his claws, and dropped down behind the present 625, covering the sandwich lover's mouth and pressing a hand against his neck to quietly bring him to unconsciousness. Gantu did not even notice, nor did he stand a chance against the new threat's stealth.


	6. Tree Cache

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 6: Tree Cache

Stitch sat silently on his mattress, his back leaning against Lilo's bed. The sun had just risen, and was shining in front of Stitch on the far wall of Lilo's room. The birds outside the window were now starting to buzz with chirps and squawks. Stitch began to think peacefully about how the world around them seemed to come to life while they-he and Lilo-were still just waking up.

Stitch's thoughts switched after a moment of admiring the quietness of the scenery, he held the red pendant in his hand by its chain, and lifted it up to gleam against the rising light. The red reflection on his face was dull, just barely turning his blue fur to an almost pinkish color where the redness passed over his face. He sighed, and lowered Lilo's pendant back down to his lap.

All night long, while he got Lilo her pendant, and even now, his mind would touch upon the subject of his desire. It tugged at his heart, urging him to think, wonder, and hope about what happened to her during the explosion. Stitch replayed that moment in time in his mind very vividly. He imagined the running steps of Jumba and the other's fleeing the hangar while the doors shut. He remembered the silence, and the sheer atmosphere that he shared with Lilo for a few seconds, where at that moment he could reflect on everything he had done to stop Achie-baba Kino, and realize just what a shock he had given Lilo. Lastly, Stitch recalled the remaining three seconds before the flare erupted; he hoisted his body up, and quickly looked to where Angel's body was. After only seeing small scrapings of blood covering the area, and her presence absent, he instinctively did what he felt was right for Lilo at the moment. He jumped upon her, and curled around her, buffering the flames from her with his own body, keeping her alive. There was a sharp sound, almost like a large void was rapidly opening, followed quickly by the distinct sound of an eruption, and immediately after, the flare and embers began licking his back painfully.

"Stitch?" Stitch jumped at the sudden break of silence in Lilo's room. His heart slowly returned to normal, for a long time it had been beating like a maniac. "Are...you ok?" Lilo asked, sitting up under the covers of her bed.

"E-eh." He replied, still wheezing inside. He hadn't realized he had dozed off while thinking, and had ended up dreaming the whole thing over again. Taking a second to calm himself down, he stood up to his feet and turned around, jump up on the bed and sat next to Lilo. "Stitch has something to show Lilo." He said, with a grin.

"What is it?" She asked, looking him over, his hands behind his back. Stitch twirled the pendant behind him so that it would face Lilo as he presented it to her, but his plan was cut short as Lilo jumped up, wrapping her arms around him, and pried the accessory from his grasp. In the process, she had knocked Stitch off the bed, he landed on his back, hard, and a bit dazed.

"Pendant." He said with an achy groan as he lifted himself up and back onto the bed. Lilo looked at what Stitch had given her-or rather what she took-and held it in her hands as if it was the most valuable thing on earth. "Lilo gave Stitch one, now Stitch return favor." He said conclusively. Lilo tried to stop a tear from forming in her eyes.

"It's red. What does red stand for again?" She asked herself, trying to remember the list at the store.

"Determination, and ambition." Stitch chimed. Lilo glanced one more time at her pendant, which looked very similar to Stitch's, and then put it around her neck. "Mabtata?" He asked; his hands clasped together. Lilo's dam gave way, and a torrent of tears fell across her cheeks. She said nothing for a moment, but looked at Stitch, then embraced him tightly.

"That's so sweet." Was all she managed to say. Stitch returned the embrace, after a moment they both let go, and Lilo returned back to normal. "Wait a minute..." Lilo began to wonder, and came to a realization. "When did you get this?" She inquired.

"Daguta, Stitch went to market, took pendant."

"You _stole _it?" Lilo's eyes shot open.

"Naga, Stitch pay!" He said, holding his hands up in an innocence gesture. Lilo crossed her arms and glared at Stitch for a minute or two, deciding whether what he had done was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Well," She slowly let her stance down, "I suppose if you payed...then it's ok." She smiled. Stitch let out a sigh he'd been holding, and relaxed his ears. "I'm going to go downstairs, you look bloodshot, take a nap for a few minutes ok?"

"Ok." Stitch said, accepting her advice. Stitch entered the room again after Lilo was done getting dressed, and watched as she left the scene, leaving the door closed behind her. Stitch walked lazily over his mattress, wondering when they'll fix the tower, and slumped down face-first into the mass of linen. He waited for a long time and didn't move. Though he wanted to just slip under the covers to be more comfortable, his arms and legs just didn't want to move yet. Finally, after minutes of aggravation and building up will power, he nestled under the sheets and onto the pillow, where he closed his eyes facing the door. _"It's so strange..." _He told himself, before falling asleep. _"Lilo taking the pendant, me falling on my back, Lilo hugging me...this whole situation turned out differently then from what happened the first time..." _He tried to ponder this anomaly further, but the weight of exhaustion took its toll, and quickly he dreamt of everything that happened, during the time of Achie-baba Kino.

Lilo lightly trotted down the stairs to see who else was awake. Unfortunately, no one was at the moment. The Kitchen clock blinked twelve. Lilo looked outside the window, and saw dark black clouds not far off in the distance. _"It must've stormed last night."_ She assumed, walking to the clock to reset it. She then went to the table, and sat down, not knowing exactly what to do.

_"Do I eat first and then wake up Stitch, or do I wait to wake up Stitch then eat?"_ She eventually came to the decision that she'd make breakfast for them both. There was a cook book in the hospital that she had actually been bored enough to read, and scrambled eggs did look easy, plus she'd seen Pleakley do it a dozen or so times, and she was familiar with the stove and supplies.

Getting out their own cook book just in case, she set out finding a pot, eggs, and the other materials. Being too short, she also had to get a chair for her to stand on. It took a second or two for her to figure out which knob went with which stove, but once she did she set it and placed the pot. Taking a slab of butter and tossing it in, she followed the instructions and let it simmer and melt, while she moved it around to make sure it got all the parts of the pot. She then grabbed four eggs, and preceded to cracking them, however she broke the first egg, and the third egg slipped out before it went into the pot.

After finally successfully cracking and placing four eggs into the pot she cleaned up the counter and scrambled the eggs, though not very gracefully, and she couldn't get the hang of it. They didn't fluff like the picture in the book, in fact nothing was coming up at all, they just stayed as egg juice in the pot.

"What're you doing?" Pleakley asked, rubbing his eye as he came into the kitchen.

"I'm trying to make scrambled eggs for Stitch and me, but..." She trailed looking at the pot, the eggs started to fluff but a slight smell of charring wafted in the air. Pleakley yawned wide. "Can you help?" She asked slightly frustrated.

"I'll finish them, you go upstairs and wake up Stitch, and they'll be done by the time you get back." He said, taking the handle of the stirrer and moving the chair aside.

"Thanks, be right back." She said. Pleakley looked off into space for a second and then realized where he was; fully awake he looked down at the spoon in his hand. A look of 'what did I get myself into' came over his face.

Lilo ran up the stairs and into her room. Stitch lay sprawled half over his mattress, drooling horribly. Lilo crept over to him, her body burned with a sinister feeling as she prepared to surprise her victim. Her hands slowly moved close to his ribs, where he was most sensitive, she breathed in heavily, and just before she was about to attack, a large thud came from outside her wall.

Receding her initiative she drew her look toward the wall where the sound had come from, the outside wall. For a while she sat and stared, waiting for something to happen again, her mind half wanted to go outside, and half wanted to stay in. It could be a prowler, or someone after them. Lilo remembered Jumba saying that Achie-baba Kino was able to change size, and was very stealthy when it came to surprising victims. According to Jumba that's how he and Pleakley were both kidnapped.

A few minutes passed, and nothing was heard. Lilo returned to looking at Stitch, the thrill of surprising him with a tickle-torture now gone. Drolly she lifted her hand to shake him awake, when the loud thud sounded again. Lilo, now agitated, lifted off her knees and walked to the window.

She saw nothing from the pane. Seizing the bottom, she lifted the window up and shot her head outside, glancing quickly to the left, right, up, and down. Nothing. She glanced ahead again. Nothing. With a small grunt of annoyance she left the window slightly ajar and went back to trying to wake up Stitch. However now she eyed the window, and as soon as the noise sounded again she was ready.

As predicted by her, the thud came loudest of all, right behind her bed. She leapt up with surprising speed to the window, taking only one step to reach her destination, opened it swiftly and jerked her head outside. Her actions were quick enough to see a dark blur run toward some shrubbery off in the distance. Lilo left the window to try and wake Stitch. Shaking him vigorously, she called his name three or four times before she gave up. He was out cold, and not waking up any time soon.

The only thing she thought to do was to go outside and figure out what that was all on her own. Now taking a stride to get to the window, she pulled herself up and over the wall, and shut the window slightly. Lilo did not look around; she went directly where she saw the black figure go. In the shrubbery she saw nothing; the figure had already fled. However, Lilo was determined to figure out who, or what, that was. She thoroughly searched the ground, and found several footprints leading back into the vegetation.

She glanced back at the house, wondering if she should try one last time to wake Stitch up, but decided not to. Looking ahead, she ran the trail of footprints and broken branches. The trail lead far down into the area, Lilo had hardly been in these woods at all. Eventually it led her to a large meadow, full of dead leaves. It was low; lower then the rest of the area, a basin where all the flooded brush and bramble went.

The trail ended where the leaves began, Lilo was discouraged. She looked around, trying to see if she could find any other trace of the trail. In the meadow, she came across a small section that looked as though someone had been there for a long time. She stood and looked around again, this time at the hills around the small basin. A moment after searching, she found her target. The figure was standing at the top of a very steep hill to her left; upon the hill was a very big tree, one of the few trees that was in that meadow at all.

She ran toward the hill, trying to see whom the figure was. It appeared to be an experiment, but she couldn't tell which one. The experiment quickly tugged at its hand, and moved closer to the tree. As Lilo neared, it moved away from the tree, saw her coming, and ran quickly down the other side of the hill. Lilo finally reached the top and stared down from her point. The land seemed to continue on forever, and dipped down from where her hill was. She could see everything, except the experiment.

Lilo was exhausted; she walked over to the tree and sat down on its roots, and stared up at the sky. The clouds off in the distance started to get dark and puffy, a storm would possibly form later that afternoon. Lilo hugged her knees, and tried to see if she could figure out what experiment she saw.

_"I want to say it was Angel, but it didn't look like her..."_ She pondered, _"But who else would want to get Stitch's attention? Or was it getting _my_ attention?"_ The thought crossed her mind that maybe that was Angel trying to tell her something. Lilo stood up and looked at the tree. _"Whoever it was...they did something with this tree..."_ Lilo placed a hand on the tree, and looked it over. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, no weird colors or shapes. She walked off to the side to see if she was where the experiment was, and realized she was on the wrong side of the tree. On the other side, however, examination wasn't necessary. In plain sight was a knot carved into the tree, a large hole the size of her hand. Lilo looked inside of it. Her face beamed immediately, for a second she stared at the contents inside the tree, and then took her eyes off of the knot.

"I have to tell Stitch!" She exclaimed aloud, taking off for the house. _"This'll cheer him up, I know it will. Even though he hasn't said anything, deep inside, the question of Angel is on his mind. He'll be glad to know that she's alive."_


	7. Losing Hope

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 7: Losing Hope

Stitch woke abruptly, shooting up with a scream. Sweat matted his fur; his pulse was haywire; his breathing was rasp; his eyes burned from the salted tears. A while into his fearful state, he realized that he didn't know exactly why he was like this; he didn't know if he had a nightmare, much less-if he did-he couldn't remember what it was about.

A strong smell gagged his throat; his breathing picked it up quickly. He sniffed the air again, realizing what the smell was, and made great haste for the door, something was burning very strongly downstairs. In a blur he arrived to the kitchen, sliding on the slick floor and falling onto his back as he skidded to a stop but tripped. Almost instantly and reflexively he lifted himself up with a lunge, and strode over to the cause of the smell. Pleakley was found asleep by the stoves, the pot on the burner smoking with a metal spoon still in it. Stitch turned the burner off and grasped the pot. He recoiled at the heat with a grunt, blowing onto his hands.

He smacked his face in stupidity after he saw the handle. Deftly taking the pot he dumped out the eggs into the sink and turned the water on full blast and ice cold. The smell still lingered in the kitchen, even after the pot was now temperate. Stitch shuffled over to Pleakley and shook him awake.

"Five more minu..." He trailed, not finishing his sentence. Stitch immediately threw his arms up in impatience and left Pleakley to sleep. He walked out of the kitchen and glanced over into the living room in hopes of finding Lilo; she wasn't there. He twitched his ears and scratched his head for a second, then proceeded slowly upstairs to the bedroom. Quietly the door opened as he made his way inside, thinking Lilo had gone back to sleep. But she wasn't in her bed.

Stitch raised his eyebrow and folded his arms in wonder. Not bothering to really think about it, he shuffled to his mattress on the floor and laid back down in it. He reached up past his head to open the dresser drawer, where his pendant was kept overnight. He gazed at Lilo's gift to him with pride, on the back of it he had carved "Promise" for the meaning of the color, as he had carved "Determination" on Lilo's. Carefully he strung through the chain, and looped the pendant around his neck, making sure it fell onto his chest exactly the right way. He laid his head back onto the now damp and cool pillow; a draft came into the room from the window, which he didn't mind.

_"Tomorrow...we fight 625 tomorrow and I haven't yet figured out what to change..." _He thought. Footsteps, loud and distant, but getting closer, reached his ears. _"That's Lilo, coming to take me to the tree. All that's there is a fake note, just like before. ...I don't think I can do this again, I don't want to break Lilo's heart, and shatter her hopes...again..." _Just then the door to Lilo's room burst open, nearly shooting of its hinges, as Lilo came sliding into the room, landing on Stitch's mattress. Stitch kept his eyes closed, anticipating Lilo's excitement in disdain, her hopes were vain, and her excitement just made it all the more depressing to Stitch.

"Stitch! Stitch! I found something, out back, deep in the woods, there's a meadow, full of leaves, and-"

"Miga nota." He said pessimistically. "Stitch met Angel there, before Achie-baba Kino." He continued openly, knowing she wouldn't mind being reminded of the incident.

"But, you don't understand," She panted, "There was this dark figure that I chased all the way to that meadow, and then it disappeared, and then I saw it up on the hill, it was messing with a tree, and then it spotted me and fled. I think it was an experiment, and I think it was actually Angel!" She said very quickly, almost spitting and slurring her words. Though Stitch loathed what was going to happen, and hated himself for going along with the course, he pretended to bring his hopes up. "But that's not all, I have to show you something." Lilo began again, shaking Stitch. Much against his wishes, Stitch convinced himself to go along with Lilo out to the meadow.

"Ok, ok, show Stitch." He said, sighing heavily. Lilo jumped off of him and ran toward the window, opening it up wide and jumping through. Stitch lazily trudged to the window, and let out a grunt as Lilo yanked him through the passage, and shut it behind him.

She ran toward the woods, grabbing his hand tightly as she passed him, forcing him to follow her. Though he gave some resistance-mainly because she was running too fast and too near him for him to keep his balance without tripping them-he was at the moment no match for Lilo's excitement and force pulling his shoulder joint to the point of ripping his whole arm off.

While she dodged left and right the oncoming branches, bush, bramble, and obstacles, Stitch was left to sometimes hit most, if not all, of everything they had passed. At one particular time Stitch was caught wedged between two rocks, Lilo had to stop tugging him, go behind him, and shove him past to get him unstuck. By the time they reached the meadow Stitch was doubling over with pain.

"C'mon, not much farther." Lilo urged, still tugging on Stitch. He tried to tell her that he would rather walk on his own-it would be easier for her and less painful for him-but she paid no heed to his pleas and yanked him-at one point by the head-up the largely sloped hill to the tree. "Are you ok?" She finally asked, as if oblivious to what she had just put him through. Stitch groaned and rolled his eyes, falling with exhaustion against the tree.

"I'm ok...I'm fluf..." he trailed, gripping his sides and groaning.

"You really should watch where you step you know." Lilo advised, smiling. Stitch coughed melodramatically, trying to interrupt Lilo's sentence. Inside he laughed a little bit; this was actually just what he needed to lighten his mood. He did revert back to his serious reflective attitude, knowing he was just waiting for a train wreck that was bound to happen--that had already happened. "Well," she began, "you picked a good spot to collapse in pain at. The place I wanted to show you is right above your head." Stitch looked up, cocking his head back all the way, stretching his throat comfortably. Above him was the knot in the tree, the cache that contained the letter.

Stitch lifted himself off of his knees, and stared deeply toward the cache in the tree. He savored this moment, however it was different from before. Before, he savored the moment with hope that he would find a clue to Angel's condition. He was happy when he read the letter, and really thought it was Angel. But now his savoring was not for that reason. He savored the fact that this was the last moment he would have, where Lilo would be happy, where he wouldn't have a care about anything, and where the sky was clear blue, and peaceful. He stalled for as long as possible, knowing that the moment he pulled out that letter, the calm before the storm would be over, and his mission would truly begin.

"What are you waiting for?" Lilo pushed, hinting to reach inside the tree. Stitch closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, still trying to stretch the calm out for a little bit longer, he reached his hand toward the knot of the tree. Guiding his fingers into the hole, slipping his wrist in as slowly as possible, and pretending to fumble the letter as if he couldn't quite grip his fingers around it and pull it out. Finally, he could stall no longer; he pulled the letter out at a normal speed and opened its half-fold to the words that were written in his familiar tongue. "I looked at it before, it's Angel's handwriting, but I don't know what it says...can you read it to me?" She asked, "That is, unless you don't want to, if so then I understand."

"Naga," Stitch said, as cheerfully as possible, but it still came out low. "Stitch translate." He said reading the letter. In his mind he spoke the deceiving words. _"Stitch, eba boochiboo. Miga loochiba! Miga meura ju aga-mootcha, atupa sobate spiraga domuto...madriba? Kabudga, miga soo-cha ju. Angel."_ He paraphrased to Lilo what the letter said. "Angel is alive, she wants to meet us tomorrow at Katapo Spire..." He trailed, Lilo looked at him oddly.

"Boy, for some reason _you_ sure don't sound happy that Angel is alive!" She exclaimed.

"Lilo..." he breathed in, mustering courage, "this letter...Angel did not write."

"...What do you mean?" She asked, suddenly acquiring a worried tone. "Of course Angel wrote that, it's her handwriting."

"Naga...doesn't have Angel's scent." Stitch told her. It was true, to a certain extent. Stitch already knew Angel didn't write the note, but he also knew that the scent coming from the letter was not Angel's, but an imitation that 625 had somehow manifested.

"I don't believe it..." She said to the ground. "But, if Angel didn't write the letter who did?" She asked Stitch.

"Uh..." Stitch thought nervously. _"Should I tell her?" _He thought. _"It might be better if I did. But then that would most likely change history worse. Jumba said to change only the battle..." _He decided not to tell her. "Naga nota." He said shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean you don't know? If you don't smell Angel's scent, there has to be another scent. I _saw_ an experiment put that into the three, there _has_ to be a recognizable scent." Lilo began to eye Stitch, suspecting that he was hiding something.

"Stitch doesn't recognize it." He lied. Lilo walked over to the tree, and hit it strongly with the padded side of her fist.

"This is stupid." She said. "What's going on?" She hit the tree again. Something came out of the cache that caught Lilo's eye; it fell lightly onto the grass at the roots of the tree. With a rhetorical "huh?" She bent down to find what it was that fell out of the tree. "Hey, Stitch." She said, with renewed happiness, "Look what I found, it was in the tree also." Stitch looked into outstretched hand, and saw two or three strands of magenta fur. "See?" She said, holding the proof in her hand, "It _was_ Angel, this is her fur."

Stitch nodded in agreement. He recalled rushing through the time stream and seeing this very scene on one of the images shown; however he didn't know what it meant. Once again, something was changed, something was different; something wasn't like what had happened before. A shiver ran down Stitch's spine.

"Ok, ok, you're right," Stitch gave in falsely. "Stitch supposes Angel is still alive." He continued. _"But I'm still not convinced, she never appeared the first time, it was 625. He could have placed her fur in there, in fact, he probably did..." _Stitch looked up and smiled emptily at Lilo, and walked down the hill, taking her hand behind him.

"Are we going to the spire tomorrow?" She asked to remind him about the message.

"Eh." He confirmed, "Tomorrow, 7, morning." He told her. They walked back to the house, Lilo's hand in Stitch's. Stitch made absolutely sure he went slow and carefully; Lilo brought this up and apologized for putting him through so much getting to the meadow. He said it was ok, let go of her hand, and let her lead the way back to the house. They arrived at half past 3; Nani and Jumba were practically surprised when they didn't come back with an experiment after they had been gone for such a long time. They spent the rest of the day looking for the spire where they were to meet Angel, except they didn't tell anyone about it, Stitch had asked Lilo not to unveil anything to the others.

Lilo walked into the living room from downstairs after coming down from the tower, which they had fixed completely a few hours after looking up the location of the spire. She glanced around, Stitch wasn't anywhere, he had finished moving his stuff upstairs long before she was, and now she couldn't find him.

Stitch sat outside on the hammock, watching the sun set behind the hills. He thought about tomorrow, and about all the things that had changed. _"The fur was never there before. This morning happened completely different, and Jumba was supposed to warn us that his computer detected a lyses in the time flux continuum the evening after Lilo and I talked out here." _His mind tossed and turned between all his thoughts, he was so into his mental contemplation that he lost his breath when Lilo called his name behind him.

"Can I sit down too?" She asked, after his breathing returned to normal.

"Eh, Lilo can sit." He said cheerfully, scooting aside to give Lilo the dip of the hammock. She sat gently on the hammock and stared out into the sunset along with Stitch for a long time. Stitch returned to his pondering as though Lilo had not even arrived, and Lilo saw right through him.

"Stitch, out with it, what's wrong?" She asked, worriedly.

"Stitch staring at sunset; nothing wrong." He said, trying to direct attention away from his awkward silence treatment.

"Oh come on, Stitch, I know you better then that. You've been acting really strange lately, and I know exactly why." Stitch gulped, for a second he thought she was going to start telling him she knew all about his time travel journey, but was relieved when she continued speaking. "I understand why you're so depressed, but I know she's alive. She escaped before the explosion, that's why she wasn't in the hanger when you saved me, she got out and stayed away from us for a while, just in case if Gantu came after us or something, and now I bet she wants to contact you again." Lilo breathed in, she had said all of this on one long breath and was now losing the saturation in her eyes.

"Stitch wishes it were true...but Angel is..."

"Don't say it." She put her index finger over his mouth to shut him up. "I will stay here and convince you that Angel is alive, even if it takes all night. I don't see how you can still think she's...not here...when all of the evidence is right in front of your eyes."

"Because..." Stitch began, trying to think of something to say other then 'I've done this before, she never showed up, it's going to happen again, we're going to meet 625 from the future instead of Angel, he's going to try and send me into space to kill me'. "Gut feeling." He said, "Stitch's heart believes Angel is alive, but Stitch's gut..."

"Listen to your heart, Stitch, Angel is alive, that's all the proof you need." Stitch smiled, he was wrong again, the past had changed. Lilo wasn't agreeing with him that Angel was dead; she was trying to convince him, no, _demanding_ that he accept Angel was alive. "There now." She said, smiling back at him.

"Stitch love Lilo." He said, giving her a hug, the sun now set behind the trees.

"I love you too Stitch." She said, returning the gesture. "Tomorrow we meet Angel at the spire." She said.

"Eh!" He replied enthusiastically. _"Actually..."_ He trailed in his thoughts, _"Maybe this is the change that I should make..."_ Silently he made a decision, and looked back at Lilo with a yawn. "Stitch going to bed, Lilo coming?"

"I'll be there later, goodnight." She said.

"Goodnight." He replied, walking inside. Lilo heard the door shut, his footprints, and the elevator of the tower riding up to the top. She looked outward to the velvet sky for a long time, without thinking, without moving, just breathing. For a while she sat in this state, before she finally spoke aloud.

"You still don't believe me, do you Stitch?" She asked to the sky. "As much as you can try to show that you really believe me, you still never really do." She looked down at her lap and closed her eyes, and began to cry silently. "I thought...that you had hoped she was alive. At first I had no hope myself so I placed it all on you." Her voice began to quiver as sadness took her over. "But now you given up hope. I still want to believe she's alive, but it seems pointless and hurtful if I keep hoping after you've given up. I don't want to give up hope, but the more I see you hurt, the more I feel hurt because I can't do anything." She stayed quiet for a long time, holding her hands clasped against her chest. "Angel..." She spoke, her tears now ceasing. "I wish you would stop torturing Stitch. Please let you be the one who wrote that letter. I can't take Stitch feeling this way any longer, he's sort of my brother now, and I don't think I can take another day of him acting like this..." She trailed; the velvet sky was now dark and starry. She sniffed her tears a few more times, and picked herself up to go to the tower. She cried herself to sleep that night.

The sun was still just below the horizon, ready to purge the plain and begin shining on the ground. The dimly lit dark blue sky hovered ominous clouds that bore the threat of a thunderstorm. Dense, heavy fog rolled over the island, smelling tropically humid, and distinctly moist as one breathed in.

Stitch breathed out loose and slowly, standing outside the house. He had an hour to get to the spire on foot; he and Lilo planned to leave by the buggy to get there faster, but he now had other plans. His body shivered from the cold morning fog as he gathered his courage to actually pull off leaving Lilo behind.

_"Lilo will be furious once she finds out I left without her...but it's for the better. 625 will use her to distract me, I can't fight him if I have to worry about her safety..." _He slowly lifted one foot up, and set it down against the wet grass. The sun now peeked over the treetops, it was time for him to leave. The clouds overhead began to drizzle rain.

"Stitch?" Lilo spoke, coming outside.

"Eh?" He replied, not facing her, and stopping in mid step. _"This is great, my plan out the window." _He spoke in his mind angrily.

"What are you doing?" She asked dumbly. She was not able to see him quite clearly. A crack of thunder came from above them, Stitch turned around, a dark overcast was over Lilo's face as he stared at her.

"Lilo," he breathed in sternly, he had to tell her or else it would just make it worse for him. "Stitch is going to the spire...alone." Thunder cracked again. Lilo instantly felt the rain increase harder on her, a sort of irritation built up inside of her. Yesterday she was so excited, they were going to see Angel again, but now Lilo felt as though Stitch wasn't going to take her along because he wanted to see Angel alone.

"You don't want me to go...because you want to see Angel alone don't you?" She asked with disappointment. Stitch blinked and raised his ears.

"Naga. Is another reason, Lilo must stay." He ordered nicely.

"Stitch," She contrasted, "you and I are a team. I have to go with you, I want to see Angel too."

"Angel will not be there!" He shouted over a thunderclap. Lilo began to get frustrated, Stitch wasn't being straight with her, he was hiding something and she knew it. It wasn't often Stitch had this stern look on his face, and it wasn't often that he would tell her to stay behind. Lilo walked over to him, and grabbed him on the shoulders.

"I don't care if no one is going to be there, I'm still going to go with you, got it?" Stitch growled. He had no time to waste, he had to defeat 625 as quickly as possible, and Lilo being there would only slow him down. If she weren't going to listen to him, he would have to-though he hated himself greatly for it-force her to stay behind. He took her hands on his shoulders and returned them to her side, and gripped her in a hug.

"Stitch knows Lilo wants to go, Stitch understands..." He let go of her, but then grabbed her shirt collar and lifted her up off the ground, she looked at him with complete surprise, not expecting this to happen at all, as his dark black eyes stared into her with utmost sadness, and regret. She knew he was doing this for something other then a selfish reason now. "But Lilo has to stay behind. Trust Stitch, Angel won't be there, _so stay behind!_" I loud clap of thunder came, as did lightning, when Stitch said these words. He threw Lilo down to the ground and took. His heart scolded him for doing such a thing, and he took the punishment of guilt fully, knowing he deserved it.

Lilo stared blankly as Stitch ran out of sight through the fog. She trembled, and now realized how serious he was. For a second she wondered if he knew something in advance, he had said himself that he knew Angel wouldn't be there. _"He's trying to tell me something indirectly. He's done this once before, and..." _She stood up looked ahead, her inductive reasoning now led her to a startling conclusion. _"He's walking into a trap and knows it somehow, that's why he wants me to stay behind."_ She recalled Achie-baba Kino; Stitch told her that Angel had met him, and warned him of a trap that Gantu had set for him. But still he went along with it, however she wasn't going to go in at the time, or so he thought. _"That's why he was concerned. I stayed in the car, so he didn't have to worry about my safety. Now that he has no excuse to go by..." _She narrowed her eyes, her mind was now set, there was nothing that Stitch could do to stop her. She took off in his direction toward the spire. _"This has to be something that he knows is stronger then he is, otherwise he wouldn't have made me stay behind..." _She said confidently to herself, as she ran through the brush toward the point of destination.


	8. Rage Once More

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 8: Rage Once More

The rain had cleared up when Stitch arrived at the spire. His mind was clouded with many thoughts. He walked toward the ledge of the cave that was just before the spire, and shook his head to clear his mind. _"It was for the better, Lilo will understand...I hope..."_ He took a deep breath and headed forward into 625's trap.

However, Stitch had an advantage, he knew exactly where 625 would be, except this time Lilo wouldn't be with him. He walked out into the sun, and leapt over onto the spire. In the middle of a large canyon, walls surrounding all sides, the spire was small and lower then the top of the canyon, but it was wide and tall enough to be well above the ground. Stitch glanced around, the air smelled damp and musty, clouding 625's scent. The ship was exactly where it should be, right on the edge of the spire. The first time they had come, they thought this was a ship Angel had used to arrive at the spire, but now Stitch would not be so easily deceived.

"Angel..." Stitch said with a menacing and slightly quavering voice. "Angel..." Stitch crept around the spire, knowing 625 was waiting to ambush him. Before, 625 was hanging from a ledge that went over the side of the spire slightly. 625 then hoisted himself up and kicked Stitch on the rise. Stitch quietly crept over to that exact spot and prepared for 625 to leap up.

"I'm afraid Angel will not be seeing you." Echoed a voice from far off. Stitch jumped instantly and turned around to where the voice was coming from. Off in the distance, on the risen wall that encircled the spire, 625 stood with his hands on his hips, and a smirk on his face. His body was reformed; his stomach now thin and his stomata type now resembled that of a mesomorph. His usual big and goofy teeth, appeared to have been sharpened into fangs, and his eyes were now narrow and sharp.

"625..." Stitch growled, "Stitch wondered when 625 would show up..." 625 raised his eyebrow.

"How did you know-"he cut himself off. "I'm amazed at your stupidity cousin; you sound as though you came here knowing I would show up, and yet you came anyway."

"Ju naga achie-baba!" Stitch hissed, pointing a claw at 625. The experiment gave out a satanic laugh, deep and rolling, completely different from his usual voice. "Naga tarakaba!" Stitch shouted with annoyance.

"You seem eager, but tell me, where is your-"

"Stitch!" Lilo cried off in the cave, interrupting 625.

"Ah, there she is..." He smiled as he jumped off from the wall swiftly, and landed right in front of the cave. Stitch ran to attack, but 625 was too quick; clasping Lilo just as she came through the mouth of the cave, 625 took hold of her shoulder and pulled her off to the adjacent side of the spire. Stitch stood and bared his teeth.

"Wha-what's going on?" Lilo panted with utter amazement, one moment she had been running after Stitch, the next she was grasped by the shoulder. Her eyes saw nothing but a flash of light, as a blood rush raced through her neck. The light faded, and she looked at her seizer. "62...5?" He laughed lowly.

"Too easy!" He cried with delight, "I haven't even broken a sweat and already I'm winning." Stitch growled and jetted toward 625.

"Let Lilo go!" He demanded with loath as he bared his claws to rip 625, but he was stopped by a net that enveloped him from the blaster 625 had pulled out and shot in the blink of an eye. Stitch tumbled for a distance, and landed a few feet from the edge of the spire.

"You're not 625!" Lilo shouted. "625 wouldn't do something like that!"

"Lilo," Stitch cried from the net, his head sticking out, "is 625, from future!"

"Perhaps I should explain." Snarled 625.

"What is there to explain?" Lilo said casually. 625 growled and lifted her at head height.

"Why Stitch must be destroyed." Lilo looked at him, cocking her head in confusion.

"What?" She yelled, "You're crazy, Stitch didn't do anything worth being destroyed over!"

"_Stitch killed Angel!_" 625 shouted over her. Lilo looked at 625 with wide eyes, her attention was completely taken by him. "I am 625, but I am from the future, to exact revenge against Stitch for killing Angel."

"What do you mean?" Lilo asked, her voice low and frightened.

"You remember the fight with Achie-baba Kino, don't you?" He asked her, she nodded her head. "During that fight Stitch was up against an impossible enemy. At first I thought he would win eventually, knowing Dr. Hamsterveils history with his attempts at getting Stitch, but during this fight I really thought he would lose. But the real story happened before the fight. Angel and I were supposed to lure Stitch into the hangar, and there, Achie-baba Kino would do the rest, but things changed. Angel had found out that Dr. Hamsterveils plan was to have Angel in the claws of Achie-baba Kino, to make Stitch suffer by seeing his love being tortured and in pain." Lilo gazed into 625's eyes, listening to every word of his story.

"However, Angel's happening on Hamsterveils true plan made no difference; he still sent Angel down to entice Stitch's love and cause him suffering. But what Hamsterveil hadn't counted on was that he was torturing _my _love as well, and more so I couldn't do anything about it!" He snapped at Lilo, she jerked as his fangs came inches from her eyes.

"When Angel was being tortured by that beast," he continued, "I wanted to do anything in my power to stop him, but Gantu had a blaster pointed right at me if I did anything suspicious. Then Angel was thrown to the ground, and you were her replacement, which I enjoy reliving in my mind very much now." He paused to recall Lilo in Achie-baba Kino's hands.

"It was then, that Stitch flew off the deep end; he became angry, enraged, so much so that he couldn't control it at first. The wave of hatred was almost too much for him; I could feel it inside of him. I thought for sure he would go into a mad rage, but instead he surprised me by controlling his loathsome and directing it full-force at Achie-baba Kino, sending the dragon to his end." Lilo grimaced when 625 mentioned of Stitch's rage. That was most horrid part of the whole incident; the Stitch she knew had changed, and she thought it might have been permanent

"But that's not the end of it," 625 went on, Stitch began to move around inside the net, to try and break it while he rambled the story he had already heard. "Hamsterveil decided to do the drastic thing and blow up the hangar. I raced to where Angel was, but Gantu picked me up before I even turned around, and carried me out of the hangar into his ship before the whole place exploded." He looked down as he continued. "Then, later, I went back to the hangar and saw only blood on the floor where Angel had laid. In time I was able to contact Stitch and hear the story of what happened."

"So you know then, that there's nothing Stitch could've done." Lilo told him as he paused. The net around Stitch was now getting looser.

"No, I know Angel was inside that hangar when it erupted, there's now way she could've gotten out in her condition, he could've looked around sooner, but instead he stayed with _you_ and saved _you_, because of _you_ Angel was left behind and killed in the fire. Stitch's actions killed Angel, and now I've come to get Stitch."

"You're such a coward!" Lilo screamed as Stitch broke out of the net and bolted toward 625 with sheer adrenalin. 625 saw Stitch beyond Lilo and lowered her into his arm, his forearm pressed up against her neck, putting pressure on her passage. Stitch halted in his pace, his eyes bore through 625.

"And in order to get rid of you, I'll do what it takes," He said to Stitch, "Even if I have to _kill!_" He shouted with emphasis, as he pressed hard onto Lilo's trachea, she gasped painfully, and her eyes opened wide with horror at 625's words, her body trembled with fear. 625 took the blaster in his right hand and pointed it at Stitch. "That look in your eye..." He spoke, "That same look..." Stitch's heart pounded, a familiar fire began to boil within him. "I can feel it...you're getting angry..."

"No...Stitch..." Came the weak cry of Lilo, Stitch looked at her as a tear fell down her cheek and onto 625's arm. "Please...don't..." Stitch began to struggle, growling and barking lowly, but trying as hard as he could not become angry.

"Yes...that's it...come at me with the same anger that drove you to defeat Achie-baba Kino." 625 taunted. "_Show me!"_ Stitch ran full force at 625, extending all his arms and quills in mid leap. 625 dodged Stitch's attack and threw Lilo in his way. Stitch tried to stop, but it was to no use, his extended claws cut into Lilo's skin, making her howl with pain. Blood reached the ground as they both hit the floor.

"No..." Stitch said low, his rage mostly subsiding. 625 laughed satanically once more; he enjoyed watching Stitch suffer, and savoring the look on his face, trying to imagine the feeling that came his expression of torment at what he had just done to his best friend.

"Stitch..." Lilo sputtered.

"Don't talk." He managed to speak.

"Stitch listen...do you remember the promise you made to me...back in the hospital?"

"Eh. Eh." He said, in an effort to stop her wounds from bleeding, grasping them tightly with his hands.

"Forget about it...you have to change like you did before...it's the only way to stop 625..." Stitch looked deeply into Lilo's eyes. "It's ok...I'll try...not to be scared..." He continued to stare, not able to make a decision, a clap of thunder came from the sky above as the storm started up again. "Do it...it's the only way...forget the promise..." Stitch blinked, his rage was trying to heat up inside of him, but he was deeply trying to suppress it. Something told Stitch not to do what Lilo said, something that he remembered in the back of his mind allowed him to think clearly. The pendant around his neck gleamed off of Lilo's eyes as a lightning bolt flashed off in the distance. He clasped the pendant in his hand, the rage inside almost seizing control.

_"It's green..."_ Came Lilo's voice, as he remembered the day she gave him the pendant, _"For hope, and promise." _The rage built completely up inside of him now, and the apex of his focus was reached once again. His mind grew calm, but alert; his breathing slowed, but became more controlled; his muscles relaxed, but remained strong; his eyes loosened, but remained fixated; his face scowled lightly, but remained stern and concentrative. Lilo stared back at him with fear; he let go of her sides, and wrapped his arms around her. She hesitantly gripped him back with her right arm, her left still unable to move from the deep wound. Stitch sensed the erratic fear in her pulse, and responded to calm her down.

"Do not worry..." He spoke kindly to her, his voice soft and reassuring. "Stitch not angry this time." He crossed his neck with hers and embraced tightly for a long moment, then receded to look back into her eyes. "Lilo ok?" He asked, referring to her wounds. She nodded with a slight groan, her mouth remained opened now in wonder if Stitch was as he was when fighting Achie-baba Kino, or if this was a different Stitch all together. "Good." He said quietly, setting her down. She shifted around to her side to watch. Stitch walked calmly up to 625, and stopped a yard in front of him.

"I guess it was a good idea not to attack you while over there, you seem to be much more willing to fight now." Stitch stared at 625, not saying anything. "Hmph, very well then, should I take the first move or would you like to start this fight?" Again Stitch said nothing, but moved into a defensive stance. "Very well then," 625 said, closing his eyes and cracking his neck and knuckles as he readied to assault Stitch straightly, "I suppose I'll have at it then, are you ready-" His words stopped as Stitch silently and swiftly charged toward 625, striking him initiatively in the face with a solid punch, sending him flying to the side near the edge of the spire.

625 let out a cry as he rebounded from the blow and shot back at Stitch. The confident blue experiment didn't move at all; a full force punch was about to be delivered by 625; as hard, if not harder, then Stitch's hit just prior. However, 625 was thrown to the other direction as Stitch caught the attack, and seemed to control 625's motion to the other side of the spire, sending him once again to rebound. This time 625 assaulted with a flying sidekick. Stitch proved the attack unqualified for his skill, he jumped upon 625 in mid air and took him down while flipping him over so that he hit the ground first.

625 stood up shakily, catching his breath. Stitch stared lazily at him, mocking him. Stitch's body language spoke to him, telling him that he was no match for Stitch. His eyes narrowed, and his pupils fixated wholly on Stitch. His sharpened teeth gritted against his lower lip, severing the skin and cutting it slightly. He launched again at Stitch, this time heading straight for his arm with a severing bite.

Stitch let his arm out as bait however, and as soon as 625 attached himself, Stitch spun him around, jumped up, and slammed him down hard against the surface of the spire. 625 let go immediately on impact, stunned for a moment or so. Stitch did nothing during this time; he let his arm bleed and waited for 625 to attack him again.

625 did just that, charging toward Stitch he went for the wounded arm hoping to constrict him down to the ground with pain. Gripping his hand around Stitch's left arm, his thumb dug into the deep cut that was made from his teeth, and his left hand came up to punch Stitch in the face. Once again he proved no match for Stitch; raising his hand Stitch caught the oncoming blow and twisted it out and around 625, making him face the other direction. He then moved his left hand toward 625's thumb, forcing 625's grip off of his wrist, and after that, Stitch had him completely under his control as he did his own wrist maneuver and caused 625 to hurl to the ground with a nearly broken hand.

625 had other ideas however, he took the blaster that was on his person and shot Stitch square in the right shoulder, but Stitch only leg go softly, without a flinch. 625 assaulted him once again, trying to lead him to the cryogenic transport ship, the same way Stitch had been tricked last time, except now he was under full concentration. He planned to throw 625 inside and be rid of him forever, so he let 625 pound him until they were close enough. Stitch's body bled from head to foot as 625 clawed and ripped his fur away, Lilo strained to see behind 625, and was drawn back by the horrid beating Stitch was giving himself.

"Stitch, stop!" She cried as he gripped 625's wrist, but at the sound of her voice he suddenly came to; as if being in a trance or possessed, his mind suddenly fuzzed and he was stupefied. Unfortunately his catatonia was all 625 needed to thrust Stitch into the transport ship, trapping him once again. "No!" Lilo cried, realizing what happened, as the ship slowly and steadily took off.


	9. Corrected

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Ch. 9: Corrected

Lilo looked only in distant shock as she saw her friend, no her brother, be hurled into a transport ship and thrown into space. The ship went at an amazing startup speed, it quickly left the spire and was now heading for earth's atmosphere. _"No...this can't be..."_ Lilo thought in distress.

"He was no match, really, too blinded by anger to figure out what I was doing to...what?" 625 screamed in disbelief, Lilo looked up abruptly from her close-eyed sad position, to see the ship heading back down their direction. As the ship neared closer, Stitch was seen ripping through the metal doors that held him as he arched up into the air, and came back down in a dive. Coming closer to the spire, he flipped and landed on all fours as the ship behind him fell deeper into the crevice between the spire and the wall, exploding as soon as it reached impact to the ground, a stream of smoke and embers shot up behind Stitch, illuminating him with an orang-gray glow.

"Stitch!" Lilo said coughing.

_"Why won't you just die!"_ 625 shouted insanely, aiming his blaster and preparing to fire another shot. Stitch ran on all fours toward him, the debris behind him blurred him enough to veer 625's vision by a short caliber, and Lilo held her hand out trying to move closer to the scene, when suddenly Stitch was thrown back by an unseen force. His body suddenly felt a great impact as he was hurled back into the direction he came from. His eyes opened a moment later and he jumped up ready to defend himself against 625, but when he looked over in his direction; 625 was behind a frozen blaster shot. He glanced over at Lilo, who was looking at him, and blinking her eyes in insecurity.

"Wh-what's going on?" She asked Stitch fearfully.

"Stitch." Came a familiar voice that seemed to come at them omni presently. "Stitch, can you hear me?"

"Chroney?" Stitch asked, recognizing the voice. "Padaga ju sheepa guata?"

"My friend, it's been a while, and it is apparent that my purpose, has not yet been fulfilled." Stitch continued to look around, but did not see the experiment anywhere.

"Stitch...who's-"

"Do not be concerned Lilo," Chroney's voice spoke, "Stitch will explain to you later, if he so wishes. Stitch I have an urgency with you, it concerns the battle with 625 that has already been severed from the main time stream."

"Eh. What about?" He responded, confirming what Chroney was saying.

"Jumba has spoken to me and told me to show it to you, he explained that this would most likely show you what happened that went wrong. I'm going to reattach it temporarily to the main time stream, this will cause you to disappear shortly, the severed stream will be the dominant for just a short time, then time will continue, and hopefully you'll be able to win." He said calmly and softly.

"Do it." Stitch replied.

"Do what?" Lilo questioned, trying to crawl toward Stitch, but as she came over to him, she found herself growing opaque. Off in the distance, another Stitch appeared, and another futuristic 625, as well as the ship. At one point, everything had become opaque, but soon the other set, the set from the disbanded time stream, became completely visible, and the present Stitch was watching the battle that had taken place at this same time, 10 years ago.

Stitch's eyes grew cold as he faced 625. He was tired of hearing about Angel's death; it began to grow into what seemed like reality. First he had deceived him with the letter, and then ambushed him at the spire, and now accusing him of being Angel's murderer, and all based of circumstantial evidence. It was too much for Stitch to look beyond.

His muscles tensed as he gradually felt himself grow with hatred for this false representation of his family member. His scent was nothing that of 625's, it was more tainted and cold-blooded then Achie-baba Kino's; and that dragon didn't even have free will. He was full of emptiness, his goal, his ambition, his motive; all empty, even his heart.

Lilo stared into Stitch's eyes, she did her best not to look straight into them; she had allowed Stitch to break his promise though he objected to her forcibly, but she opposed saying it was for the better, and the only way to defeat 625. Finally he agreed, and now she was somewhat regretting she had allowed him to do this, and now Stitch was gathering his anger.

His teeth gritting, his eyes boring, his mouth dry, his ears straight, his quills erect, and his mind loathing, Stitch quickly reached the apex of his rage, as the second time is always easier then the first, and lowered his head to look at 625. No sooner did 625 prepare to attack then was Stitch already behind him, moving at speeds by which Lilo could not even see; he back fisted 625, gripped him by the scruff of his neck before he hit the ground, and threw him far off into the distance. 625 caught the ledge of the spire, and hoisted himself up, and ran straight for Stitch.

A solid kick sent Stitch flying and rebounding to the other side, retaliating with a swift attack, gripping 625's legs underneath him and once again throwing him. This time 625 reached the wall outside the spire. He turned in mid air and caught himself on the wall, Stitch grabbed the blaster on the floor and fired at him, but 625 was too evasive to target accurately. He managed to reach the top of the outer wall and jump back down to the spire, not bothering to land, he side kicked Stitch, grabbed him by the feet as they both landed, and hurled him into the cryogenic transport shuttle, where he was frozen and unable to move, as the ship was silently launched into space. A blinding flash of light, and the severed set of characters disappeared, leaving the present set visible once again.

"I hope that has helped you, Stitch." Chroney spoke.

"Helped more then Chroney anticipates, showed Stitch what changes." Stitch told him, thankingly. Stitch looked up to hear for another response, but Chroney's voice had stopped. The world around Stitch was returning back to normal, unseen by him, and the blaster bullet was heading straight for him. He turned, and had no time to reflex; the bullet him in the chest, opening a wound and sending him backward, a distance that was halfway between the edge of the spire, and where he had just stood.

"That's for thinking you're better then me!" 625 shouted, firing another shot. Stitch quickly reoriented himself to his feet, only to be hit by another shot sending him once again flying, this time closer to the edge. "That's for destroying my ship!" 625 threw the blaster in Lilo's direction and ran toward Stitch with his claws extended in his left and, and a balled fist ready in his right. "And this is for killing Angel!" He shouted louder then the two before, as he uppercut Stitch hard and solid, sending the unconscious hero plundering down the crevice between the spire and outer wall. "It's finally done!" 625 triumphantly shouted, giving off another satanic laugh.

Dark clouds surrounded the islands once more; the rain, which had subsided during the battle, was now back again. The clouds were dark and low, shielding the sunlight and casting a dark blue glow about the island. Rain began to drizzle, then quickly turned to a downpour as a thunderstorm raged all about the two left standing on the spire.

Her hair was now drenched, and her clothes greatly saturated. The blood that covered her arm, and decorated the rip in her dress near her stomach now washed away from her wounds. The rain clouded her tears of sorrow and regret, pessimism and tragedy stayed within her for only a second, but was quickly replaced by another emotion. The same one that changed Stitch, was now changing her, and though she feared it she let it take over her.

Rain sleeked past the blaster's metal coating and dripped inside it's rifled shaft and streaked across the finger that lightly pressed against the trigger. Rain soaked the anger surrounding her mind; rain allowed her to see her target clearly; rain was now one of her allies.

"You don't deserve to live." She said lowly. 625 turned around.

"And _you_." He said, continuing on as if he had been talking the whole time, "are the whole reason why Stitch ditched Angel. You were in there with him, and you were the one he had to protect."

"You just won't stop will you?" A clap of thunder and lightning flashed behind Lilo. "You'll blame anyone you can until you forget about her."

"Think what you like but it won't matter," he said preparing to charge, "I'll get rid of you as well!" She cared not for a charge by him, she had already pulled the trigger and the bullet was already on its way to the mark. She looked away and began to run, as the bullet came quickly to 625, then quickly slowed down. Lilo heard a loud gust of wind, and looked behind her to see what was the source of the noise. A small tornado had formed behind her, and the sky above them was bright as the clouds were separated into an oval shape. The current of winds spiraled upwards into the clouds, and at the bottom of the gales, 625 was gripping the ground.

"625!" Shouted Chroney's voice. "I cannot allow you to abuse the time stream for your selfish purposes. You have attempted to throw the balance of the future off twice now, and I'm afraid this time you have failed. However, Stitch has not managed to send you back through time, and I cannot cease to exist until my purpose is fulfilled."

"What are you?" Shouted 625 up into the torrent.

"I am Chroney, and my purpose is make sure you are not able to disrupt the time flux continuum again; even if I myself must take you back."

"I'd like to see you try!" Just as this was said, another loud gale of wind was heard, and 625 scratched the claws as his body was stretched out and vacuumed into the void in the skies. Lilo stared at him, and he stared at Lilo. The expression on his face showed nothing but sheer horror, his eyes reflected panic and shock as he was quickly consumed. The winds dispersed and the rain stopped abruptly. Lilo was left in a catatonic state, gazing into the sky. A moment later she woke from her stupor, and stared at the edge where Stitch had fallen.

"Chroney..." she whispered, "Thank you for taking care of 625. But Stitch..." she breathed in, not wanting to speak, "Stitch wouldn't be able to survive that fall, not with his wounds." A gentle breeze lifted her hair, and she shivered as the cold dress clung to her skin. She doubled over and hit the ground with her fist. "Why? Why did Stitch have to break his promise? I'm sure things would've turned out differently if he just hadn't listened to me." Lilo began to lose herself in sadness, not wanting to move. She laid on her hands and knees in silence. Giving up on staying, and figuring there was no point in lingering around, she picked herself up and slowly made her way to the cliff that led down into the valley, and back to her home.

She was just about to reach the cliff when something caught her attention. Her heart skipped a beat as rocks crumbled near the far end of the spire. She twirled her head around to look, but saw nothing. Disappointed, she turned once again and prepared to step over the tiny rift between the spire and the cave. She was stopped once again by the sound of crumbling rock, but this time a grunt sounded along with it. Ecstatically Lilo twirled around and ran to the center of the spire. Her heart raced with suspense, she was sure she heard a grunt; she wasn't imagining anything. _"I'm positive, please let me be positive." _She spoke silently. Another heart skip was missed as Stitch's blue bloodstained arm was lifted above the lip of the spire, and soon his whole body was up and over. She ran toward Stitch and kneeled at his side and gazed into his eyes, which she soon realized were closed; Stitch was still unconscious.

"But how...?" Another crumble of rocks came from the far off distance, Lilo got in front of Stitch and blocked him with her body in case something unwanted was coming up. The air was silent for a moment, but only a moment as another crumble of rock came. Lilo's heart leapt with adrenalin, ready to pounce on a new threat, and she almost did. As soon as a pink arm showed over the lip, she ran two steps toward it then stopped sharply, her eyes opened wide with surprise. Another pink arm came up over the edge, as Angel lifted herself up and onto the spire, panting heavily as she reached the top.


	10. Angel's Request

Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 10: Angel's Request

Lilo did nothing as she saw Angel emerge from behind the edge of the spire. Lilo was utterly stunned at the irony of the moment, she suddenly felt as though everything was now blown out of her perspective; Chroney, a person she didn't even know, somehow knew her; 625, apparently coming from the future, randomly shows up and tries to kill Stitch and her. _"And now Angel shows up?"_

Angel slowly regained her energy after carrying Stitch up all the way from almost the bottom of the spire. She had climbed a fourth the way when suddenly Stitch fell in her direction; she caught him and had taken him up the rest of the way, which slowed her down greatly. She stood up as her breathing returned to normal and the sweat on her fur felt less humid, she walked over to Lilo, whom still remained frozen, and glanced around at her wounds. Lilo gaped slightly still in shock at seeing Angel, and said nor did anything to stop her from what she was doing.

_"You're alright, Lilo."_ Angel spoke in her familiar tongue, which Lilo silently translated in her mind. Angel put hand on her shoulder as she said this, and then ran toward Stitch like a paramedic; slowly and with large strides, as if Stitch was about to die. Stitch's body was bleeding from the deep gashes and abrasions caused by 625, Angel tugged at her stomach and arms to pull off her fur, and pad it onto the openings to clot the blood like a gauze. It was makeshift, and not very effective, but it was better then letting the wounds bleed. Angel let out a deep sigh, as if some danger were finally over, and turned her dark magenta eyes toward Lilo.

_"Where is 625?" _She said angrily. Lilo knew the anger wasn't directed toward her.

"I don't know," she began, trying to explain what she saw, "Chroney started talking and then, a big tornado came and sucked him up." She told Angel, pantomiming the story in the air. Angel gave a look of understanding. A while passed while Angel monitored Stitch, Lilo stood away, hesitant on whether or not she should try to help. Angel might get mad at her if she gets in the way, or Angel might be mad at her for coming over there in the first place. Lilo's stomach growled with confusion. Another few minutes went by, Lilo remained silent, but now another thought was crossing her mind, and she wanted to ask Angel an important question, but didn't gather the courage. The sun shone brightly now, but was soon clouded by an opaque drizzling cloud, making the surroundings have a dark green tone. Lilo decided it was now or never, and gathered the courage to ask Angel what was on her mind. "...Angel?"

_"Yes?" _Angel replied, looking at Lilo. No negative emotions appeared to be expressed; Angel merely seemed to be very attentive to monitoring Stitch's health.

"You don't have to answer this if you don't want to...but..." Lilo said gathering the last bit of butterflies into one area to block them out. "What happened, during the explosion in the hangar?" Angel smiled for a second, then she frowned and glanced downward, closing her eyes, recalling what happened in her mind.

_"It was a moment after the button was pressed, and the detonation countdown was started. I awoke to the warning and looked around, but my vision was blurry. When it was twenty seconds left, I could see clearly, and the first thing I saw were you and Stitch. I wanted to crawl over to him, but your expressions stopped me, I knew something had happened between you two, and I didn't want to interrupt it. Instead I tried to crawl outside, but it was already too late to make it outside of the hangar. Just when I thought I was done for, Slushy came behind me and carried me outside, and set me down. He told me to wait while he went inside to get you and Stitch, but I wasn't about to wait around..."_ Lilo saw that Angel was crying, as she finished her last statement. She opened her eyes and looked at Stitch, his bleeding had stopped thanks to her fur, which she slowly removed and took to the edge of the cliff, where she threw them over the side. Angel then walked back and sat closer to Lilo, waiting until Stitch would regain consciousness.

"Why didn't you stay behind?" Lilo asked, waiting for Angel to finish what she was doing.

_"Because,"_ Angel began, _"I don't deserve-"_Stitch grunted, interrupting Angel. She jumped immediately and walked over to Lilo, gripping her hands and looking her straight into the eyes. Lilo saw her face reflected off of their surface, as Angel spoke to her with a desperate tone of voice. _"Please, don't tell Stitch I was here."_ Lilo was about to ask why, but Angel interrupted her. _"Just don't, please."_ She requested. Lilo looked down, considering the request, and also what Angel was saying before.

"Ok, but tell me, what don't you deserve?" More tears began to form in Angel's eyes, she closed them to try and get rid of them as she walked toward the edge of the spire, where 625 would have ambushed Stitch. Lilo was about to stop her, when she finally spoke, her back facing toward Lilo.

_"For toying with Stitch's feelings," _She began, in a confessional tone, _"for sending him into a trap, for not seeing my stupidity, and,"_ She glanced back at Lilo quickly, tears streaming down her left eye. _"for causing you pain as well..."_ Angel turned around, her back facing toward the ledge; she looked as though she was going to do something drastic. _"It's your forgiveness I don't deserve."_

With that, Angel stepped over the edge, falling feet first. Lilo's heart leapt with fear. _"She's committing suicide!"_ Lilo thought. Although Angel did not, this is what Lilo perceived. Just a split second after Angel had taken her step off, Lilo cried out and ran toward the edge, trying to stop Angel from doing what she thought Angel was doing.

"Wait!" She cried, running toward the edge and looking over, seeing if possible there was a last chance to save Angel's life. But she didn't see Angel at all. Deep inside, Lilo felt that maybe suicide wasn't what Angel had planned, but still the thought lingered. "You're wrong..." Lilo said, a knot in her throat, and tears now streaming down her eyes. "Stitch and I...we forgave you a long time ago..." she spoke, thinking Angel didn't hear her. "You didn't have to leave us again, we were all deceived it's not just you!" she continued to speak, her tears draining out of her nose now. She stayed for a moment, regretting not seeing that Angel was planning on leaving sooner, and not stopping Angel from eluding them again, and then slowly, she picked herself up. Walking over to Stitch, still unconscious, she picked him up, even though her left arm and stomach hurt terribly, and hoisted him over her shoulder. She stepped out of the scene through the cave, silently crying and putting herself down.

_"You don't understand Lilo..." _Thought Angel, as she hung from the underside of the ledge, where 625 had hid to ambush Stitch before. _"You may have forgiven me, but I haven't forgiven myself. I'll see Stitch again, some day, but not now; it's too soon. Besides, why would Stitch want me, when he's got a good friend like you?" _Angel smiled with reassurance at this thought. _"I'm glad you're his friend, at least you can be trusted and honest toward him, unlike me..."_ A shadow crossed her face, and she slowly climbed down the spire. _"Please, don't tell him..."_

Lilo walked limply carrying Stitch over her shoulder. Her tears now dried, and her mind now vented, she looked ahead without pessimism. She enjoyed the quit while she walked, the birds chirping, the frogs croaking, the ground and mud squishing under sandals as she walked over its dampened texture. It had been nearly fifteen minutes since she left the spire; Stitch had stirred a few times, but remained out cold. Now, however, he opened his eyes.

"Lilo?" He whispered, barely able to speak, the 'l's being the only things understandable from his coarse voice. Lilo stopped, turned her head toward Stitch's back, but heard nothing. Again she started, now waiting to see if she did hear Stitch. "Lilo..." he said again, looking to his right, and seeing her neck. She stopped completely and shifted her arm.

"Are you awake Stitch? Do want me to set you down?" She asked, lowly, trying to mask her depression. Stitch nodded, and she lowered herself to lay Stitch down in a sitting position. A while went by where she sat in silence, as he lay awake, and unable to move. Lilo knew he would speak if he needed something, so she sat beside him a foot or so away, going patiently at his pace of recovery. His eyes stared at Lilo for a long time as the rest of his body remained limp and motionless. The pendant on his neck shined, contrasting cheeriness to the dreariness of the moment. Stitch saw the glimmer of green, and looked down at it without moving his head. Slowly, he forced his hand to move toward the pendant, and take it into his claws, and manipulate it.

Lilo was looking down at this time, rethinking what had just occurred, trying to make sense of it all. Who Chroney was, why Stitch somehow knew 625 was already going to be there, why Stitch was so fixated on Angel's death being a reality, and lastly why Angel would feel like they hadn't forgiven her for what she had done. Stitch's voice interrupted her mind.

"Mahalo, Lilo." He spoke, his voice sounding more normal. Lilo looked up at him, his face turned in her direction, his hand fiddling with the pendant, and his head still limp on the ground.

"Thanks for what?" She asked.

"For stopping Stitch from getting angry." He told her, in a cheery, chuckling voice.

"I didn't stop you, don't you remember, I encouraged you to when you were fighting 625; I'm the one that caused you to get tricked and-"

"Stitch not talking about that." He said, interrupting her, and showing her his pendant. "Stitch talking about promise." Lilo looked at him, not knowing what he was talking about. He continued, seeing the expression on her face. "Lilo made Stitch promise, never to change again. Stitch had forgotten this promise once before, and was tricked by 625. In fact, was almost tricked again, but then Stitch remembered..."

"Once...before? You mean...this happened before?" She moved closer to Stitch.

"Eh," he said, sitting up, "Stitch...wanted to tell you this...is long story..." he spoke, looking away.

"It's ok, tell me now, I want to know." Stitch took a deep breath, and told Lilo about what had happened.

"Everything happen, almost exact, except, during fight with 625, Stitch get angry and change. 625 trick Stitch into transport ship, sending Stitch far off into space."

"You went into space?"

"Eh. Stitch travel at light speed, for five years. Stitch arrive on planet, and received message from Jumba that five years passed, and another five would pass while Stitch return to earth."

"You were on earth ten years in the future?" Lilo asked with excitement and curiosity.

"Eh. In message, Jumba told Stitch to find time machine from Lilo in the future. Lilo had hidden it somewhere, to keep away from others. When Stitch return though, Lilo forget all about Stitch, not remember anything." Lilo looked at him with sympathy.

"How could I? You're my...brother..." she said with a blush. "Were you sad?"

"Madi. But, although Lilo not completely remember Stitch, she still trusted and was saying Stitch was familiar. Lilo let Stitch search home to find time machine, Stitch try to ask Jumba but..." He looked down, Lilo's face frowned, she had enough of her friends looking down for a long time, and she knew he was going to say something sad to her. "Jumba die, long time from then." He looked back up at her, and continued his story. "But, Stitch find Lilo's diary, which told him location of time machine."

"Really? Where was it?" She inquired. Stitch smiled, and pointed to her. "Me?" she asked, surprised.

"Lilo's pendant hollow, Lilo put time machine inside pendant."

"That must have been one small machine."

"Naga, Lilo knows machine a little. Machine was Chroney." Lilo looked at him raising an eyebrow.

"You mean that voice that was talking to you in the sky was-"

"Chroney, and more then that, Chroney is cousin."

"You mean he's an experiment?" She practically yelled the question with enthusiasm, rather then asking it.

"Eh. Designed to take Stitch back into time, and then show Stitch what to change." Lilo again lifted her eyebrow.

"Change? Change what?"

"Stitch had to correct future, something needed to change, everyone figured change had to be made in battle."

"So...you went forward ten years into the future to find a time machine to come back ten years and a few days into the past to live out the last few days and then change something in the battle to altar the future that you saw ten years from now to something different?" She questioned, plotting out the whole story.

"Eh."

"That means everything that happened...you knew..." She looked ahead. "That's why you didn't want me to come; you knew 625, and not Angel, would be there."

"Eh. Soka, but Stitch didn't want to tell Lilo, in case that would altar future again." A moment of silence hit the two; Lilo stared into Stitch's eyes. "But, even though Stitch relive...Stitch really think Angel didn't make it..." He told Lilo, as he suppressed a tear.

"Stitch..." Lilo spoke up, but stopping herself. Stitch looked at her with a curious look, and she almost wouldn't have made her decision if he hadn't given her that look. It was too torturing, seeing Stitch pine over Angel, when she knew Angel was alive. _"I'm sorry Angel, I have to tell him. Please forgive me." _"Stitch, Angel is alive." His face opened, and his eyes grew wide. "You were knocked off of the cliff, while you were still angry, so you probably don't remember, but she caught you, and carried you up the side of the spire. I talked to her, and tried to stop her from leaving, but she was too fast. I'm sorry."

"Naga! Lilo naga noita eechibabe, Angel alive!" Stitch yelled with joy. He couldn't believe she was apologizing for not convincing Angel not to go. Stitch found regained strength and embraced Lilo happily for a long moment. As he receded his embrace, he spoke quietly. "Future must be back on track."

"But...you said yourself you got angry twice, isn't that what you had to change?"

"...Lilo right..." He thought. "Maybe..." He pondered harder, looking at Lilo. Suddenly an idea came to his mind. "Lilo...when Stitch went through first time, Stitch stayed away from Lilo when he thought he about Angel. Lilo never came to Stitch for some reason, but now Lilo did. Before, Stitch was completely convinced Angel was dead, but now, because of Lilo, Stitch had something to reassure Angel was alive. _Stitch_ didn't change future, _Lilo _changed future! Lilo stop Stitch from letting go of Angel." As he said this, he wrapped his arms around her in another embrace.

"Do you really think so?" A smile crossed her face.

"Nothing else make sense." He said. Although Stitch wasn't exactly sure what was changed, since many things happened differently, but this is what Stitch wanted to believe; that Lilo changed the future. They dispersed, and sat for another moment while they both let their emotions run down a little. Lilo stood up, her spirits lifted.

"C'mon, let's go." She said, not waiting for Stitch and taking off at full speed toward the house, a few minutes down the trail. Stitch's eyes opened, not expecting Lilo's quick suggestion to start their way home again.

"Eh." He yelled to her, coming to his feet and taking off as well. They ran for some time, through the woods and on the trail, Stitch trying to catch up to Lilo. It wasn't until they reached the leafy meadow that Stitch caught up enough to jump and tackle Lilo playfully. Lilo resisted his struggle, and there they wrestled, in the leaf filled meadow; they're hearts lifted, they're spirits high, and the bright orange sun, setting in the distance. And even though Angel had evaded their hold once again, they both knew that she would show up one day to stay with them forever. But until that day, they would have to make do with what they had; each other.

Atichura

(The end)

The Chronicles of the Elusive Angel: Peace

Coming Soon...


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